DeepScribe
AI medical scribe startup focused on ambient documentation for oncology clinics.
On the record
Checkpoint: Epic AI Charting ships as free bundled feature inside Epic EHR
The call
DeepScribe still owns a real slice of oncology documentation workflow, but a free Epic tool, unnamed to the industry's 'Big 4,' and a stale funding clock put its independent future in question.
DeepScribe builds software that listens to doctor visits and automatically writes patient notes, and it has built a real advantage in cancer hospitals by working closely with cancer-focused software like Flatiron. However, Epic, the giant company that almost all hospitals use, is now giving away its own note-writing AI for free starting in February 2026, which will make it very hard for DeepScribe to sell anything new. At the same time, other AI companies like Ambience and Abridge are moving into cancer care, and basic AI note-writing is becoming cheap and easy to copy. The one thing that could save DeepScribe is if a bigger company buys it to keep its cancer expertise alive, or if its existing customers in cancer hospitals stick with it even after they have free options.
Why
01
AI pressure: Microsoft Dragon Copilot, AWS HealthScribe, Ambience Healthcare. General-purpose ambient AI scribes are commoditizing transcription, squeezing DeepScribe's pricing and pulling specialty deals into bigger platforms. Could AI do the core job? Yes, likely.
02
Bigger players: Epic Systems (Epic AI Charting, free bundle Feb 2026). Epic is bundling its own ambient charting tool free into the EHR nearly every hospital already runs, undercutting DeepScribe's paid product directly. Could a giant copy it? Yes, easily.
03
What protects it. Deep integration with Flatiron Health and Ontada's oncology EMR workflows, covering close to 40% of US cancer care visits.
What would change this call
DeepScribe announces a new funding round within 6 months. Would show investors still see independent viability rather than acquisition or decline.
Epic or Ambience ship oncology-specific charting inside Flatiron or Ontada workflows. Would show DeepScribe's core specialty moat is being directly breached.
Flatiron/Ontada/IKnowMed customer base shrinks or DeepScribe loses named oncology accounts. Would confirm real customer loss to Epic's free bundle or Big 4 rivals.
Epic or Ambience ship oncology-specific charting inside Flatiron or Ontada workflows. Would show DeepScribe's core specialty moat is being directly breached.
Flatiron/Ontada/IKnowMed customer base shrinks or DeepScribe loses named oncology accounts. Would confirm real customer loss to Epic's free bundle or Big 4 rivals.
Key numbers
- No disclosed funding round since Oct 2023 ($24M Series B)
- ~40% of US cancer care visits touched by DeepScribe users
- CEO Akilesh Bapu left for Hightouch
Named risks
- Epic's free bundled AI Charting tool structurally undercuts DeepScribe's pricing model.
- 33 months without a disclosed funding round while rivals raise hundreds of millions.
- Exclusion from industry's named 'Big 4' ambient AI scribe leaders signals niche-only positioning.
- Headcount declined 9.1% year over year as of mid-2026 amid growth narrative.
- Historical AI hallucination issues required roughly 200 human reviewers as of 2023.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Epic Systems | losing to | Epic AI Charting launched free for existing customers, February 2026, built with Microsoft |
| Abridge | losing to | Abridge raised $300M Series E at $5.3B valuation mid-2025, deployed at 250+ health systems |
| Ambience Healthcare | contesting | Reported 80% clinician adoption at Cleveland Clinic per CEO, cited November 2025 |
| Microsoft Dragon Copilot | losing to | Used daily by 100,000+ clinicians globally as of May 2026, commoditizing base transcription layer |
| Nabla | contesting | Deployed at 150+ health organizations, named among industry 'Big 4' in November 2025 |
| Suki AI | contesting | Deployed at 100+ health systems, launched Suki Revenue Cycle product in 2025 |
Questions people ask
- Is DeepScribe profitable in 2026?
- No profitability figures are disclosed. DeepScribe was reportedly on track for $6.5 million revenue in 2023 with about 1,000 providers using the platform, per a 2023 Becker's Hospital Review report citing the Wall Street Journal. No profit or loss figures have been publicly confirmed since.
- Who is DeepScribe's biggest competitor?
- Epic Systems poses the biggest structural threat after launching Epic AI Charting free for existing customers in February 2026. Among direct AI scribe rivals, trade press names Abridge, Ambience Healthcare, Nabla and Suki as the industry's 'Big 4', a group that excludes DeepScribe as of November 2025.
- Could AI replace DeepScribe's own product?
- DeepScribe's core business is itself AI automating clinical documentation, but its underlying transcription and summarization layer is being commoditized by Microsoft Dragon Copilot and AWS HealthScribe, and by Epic's free native AI Charting tool launched February 2026.
- Has DeepScribe raised new funding recently?
- No. DeepScribe's last disclosed round was a $24 million Series B led by QuantumLight in October 2023. As of mid-2026, that is roughly 33 months without a new disclosed raise, despite intensifying competition from better-funded rivals like Abridge.
- Who owns DeepScribe?
- DeepScribe is privately held and venture-backed, not publicly traded. It was founded in 2017 by Akilesh Bapu, Matthew Ko, and Kairui Zeng, with funding from Bee Partners, Index Ventures, Scale AI's Alex Wang, Figma's Dylan Field, and QuantumLight.
- What is DeepScribe's real moat against Epic and Big 4 rivals?
- DeepScribe's main edge is oncology-specific integration, including a January 2025 partnership making it the first ambient AI partner inside Flatiron Health's OncoEMR, reaching 4,200plus providers and covering roughly 40 percent of US cancer care visits as of November 2025.
Timeline
- 2026-04DeepScribe launches SmartPrep pre-visit intelligence product for oncology customers
- 2026-02Epic Systems launches free native Epic AI Charting, built with Microsoft
- 2025-11MedCity News names Abridge, Ambience, Nabla, Suki as ambient AI 'Big 4', excludes DeepScribe
- 2025-11DeepScribe reports oncology visits on pace to exceed 3 million per year, about 40% of US cancer visits
- 2025-10Co-founder CEO Akilesh Bapu departs to join Hightouch as Head of AI Product Development
- 2025-10DeepScribe wins three KLAS Emerging Solutions Top 20 awards, KLAS score 98.8/100
- 2025-07Matthew Ko referred to as CEO and founder in company materials
- 2025-01DeepScribe and Flatiron Health announce oncology AI partnership covering 4,200+ providers
- 2024-03DeepScribe unveils 'Real-Time' note generation feature at HIMSS
- 2023-10DeepScribe raises $24M Series B led by QuantumLight
Revision history
22 July 2026
First assessed. Losing its protection. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
In the same band
Sources
- Medical Prodigy DeepScribe Lands $5.2M Seed Funding (2021-05-13)
- AI-powered transcription platform DeepScribe raises $30M (2022-01-12)
- DeepScribe - Headcount, Funding & Open Jobs (2026-06-20)
- AI medical record startup riddled with errors uses humans for backup (2023-07-24)
- Akilesh Bapu Joins Hightouch (2025-10-02)
- The Startup That Gave Doctors Their Time Back (2025-07-21)
- Revenue, Competitors, Alternatives
- DeepScribe - Overview, News & Similar companies (2026-07-06)
- Ambient AI Set to Capture 3.1 Million Cancer Care Visits Annually (2025-11-11)
- Welcoming Akilesh Bapu (2025-10-06)
- DeepScribe Wins Three Awards at 2025 KLAS Emerging Solutions Top 20 Event (2025-10-22)
- DeepScribe and Flatiron Health announce partnership (2025-01-22)