Part of the 5IR Funds team: General Partner John Nguyen; Board Advisor Gina Betts; General Partner David Carstens; and Venture Partner Zachary Todd. [Photo: 5IR Funds]
Dallas-based venture capital firm 5IR Funds is leading a $6.5 million Series A investment in HOOTL, an AI-first company building secure, scalable automation to fix one of healthcare’s most broken systems: insurance processing. 5IR said it backs foundational technologies of the Fifth Industrial Revolution.
Charlottesville, Virginia-based HOOTL “represents the next evolution of healthcare automation: domain-specific, compliance-aware, and trust-first by design,” David Carstens, founder and general partner at 5IR Funds, said in a statement. “The combination of cutting-edge AI and regulatory intelligence makes HOOTL uniquely equipped to solve the insurance bottlenecks that have plagued providers for decades.”
5IR said the combination of AI and regulatory intelligence makes HOOTL uniquely equipped to solve the insurance bottlenecks that have plagued providers for many years. HOOTL’s initial rollout began in dental practices and already jas been tested successfully.
HOOTL is at the intersection of healthcare, artificial intelligence, and trust-based automation, and is developing specialized workflows that lower insurance claim denials, streamline policy change tracking, and validate claims in real time. The company said that by targeting the billions of dollars lost each year to inefficiencies and errors, HOOTL is creating the missing infrastructure layer for secure, compliant automation in healthcare.
Along with HOOTL’s suite of AI agents and unique communication capabilities, it also has “privileged access” to regulatory bodies and deep expertise in navigating healthcare policy, 5IR Funds said. That allows HOOTL to anticipate and adapt to policy shifts, embedding compliance and trust directly into its automation framework—something “few competitors can credibly claim.”
HOOTL builds domain-specific AI agents that work hand-in-hand with policy intelligence, meaning providers can engage insurers with confidence, secure in the knowledge that their systems are aligned with the latest regulatory mandates and payer requirements.
“Our mission is simple but bold: stop the financial bleed in healthcare by applying AI where it truly matters—at the interface of providers, payers, and regulators,” HOOTL CEO Denver Riggleman said in a statement. “Because of our access to policy makers and regulatory bodies, we’re not just reacting to changes—we’re building systems that anticipate them. That’s how we restore trust and unlock real, measurable value for practices.”
The funds will accelerate HOOTL’s product development, regulatory readiness, and market expansion, ensuring providers gain real-time visibility into policy changes and revenue protection, 5IR said.
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