## Caroline Merin Secures $14M Backing to Revolutionize Doctor Communication Across Latin America

Doctors across Latin America face a persistent operational crisis: WhatsApp has become their de facto medical communication channel, forcing physicians to juggle patient messages around the clock without proper organization or clinical context. This fragmented approach conflicts sharply with modern healthcare expectations, where patients demand instant responses while clinicians require structured workflows to manage thousands of daily interactions.

Caroline Merin identified this exact pain point after years optimizing operational efficiency. Her tenure as Uber Eats' first Latin American General Manager and subsequent leadership role at Rappi provided deep insight into how rapid-response logistics work, yet healthcare remained fundamentally broken. The contrast was stark: patients expected doctors to reply as quickly as they tracked food deliveries, but physicians were drowning in unstructured WhatsApp conversations without clinical data at their fingertips.

Two years ago, Merin launched Leona Health with a direct mission: inject artificial intelligence into doctors' WhatsApp workflows. The platform functions as an intelligent intermediary, allowing patients to continue messaging on WhatsApp while doctors manage communication through Leona's mobile application. The system automatically prioritizes patient messages based on clinical urgency, generates suggested responses, and enables team members—including nurses or associate physicians—to handle routine inquiries without requiring the primary doctor's direct involvement.

### Market Validation and Expansion

The fundraising announcement validates this approach. Leona Health just secured $14 million in seed-stage investment led by Andreessen Horowitz, joined by General Catalyst, Accel, and notable healthcare entrepreneurs including Kate Ryder (Maven Clinic CEO), David Vélez (Nubank CEO), and Simón Borrero (Rappi CEO). This investor constellation signals confidence in both the problem and the team's execution capacity.

The startup has already expanded to 14 Latin American countries across 22 medical specialties, demonstrating rapid market penetration. Users report reclaiming two to three daily hours through Leona's automation—a significant productivity gain in healthcare systems where physician burnout directly impacts patient outcomes.

### Why WhatsApp Dominates Latin American Healthcare

Unlike North American markets where electronic medical records systems like Epic dominate physician communication, Latin American patients actively demand WhatsApp as their preferred contact method. This preference often determines which doctors patients select, making WhatsApp proficiency non-negotiable for competitive positioning. However, this creates operational chaos: physicians receive mixed-priority requests ranging from critical medical consultations to administrative tasks (school documentation letters, appointment receipts) arriving at all hours.

### The Next Phase

Leona plans to introduce autonomous agents capable of handling conversational scheduling and preliminary intake screening, further reducing manual physician workload. The company operates a distributed team of 13 people split between Mexico City and Silicon Valley, with Merin citing Silicon Valley's AI talent concentration as essential to product development.

This approach represents a critical insight: healthcare technology solutions must meet patients where they already communicate, rather than forcing adoption of new platforms. For Latin America, this means building intelligence layers on top of WhatsApp rather than displacing it—a model with potential application across emerging markets globally.