Ubie
Japanese AI symptom checker and clinical decision support tool for hospitals and patients.
On the record
Checkpoint: Mayo Smart Support pilot moving to scaled deployment across additional US health systems
The call
Ubie has real hospital and pharma relationships in Japan, but its core consumer product is getting copied by free AI chatbots while it leans on Google's own Gemini to run its clinical tools.
Ubie helps hospitals and patients use AI to understand symptoms and manage medical records, primarily in Japan where it works with 1,800+ hospitals. Its main problem: free AI tools like ChatGPT and Google's Gemini can do symptom checking just as well, so Ubie's core product is becoming replaceable. Since Ubie actually uses Google's Gemini technology to run its own hospital system, it is partly dependent on a company (Google) that could simply offer the same services directly to hospitals and cut Ubie out. The company's growth has stopped: it has roughly the same number of employees as two years ago and makes only $17 million per year despite raising $125 million. The one thing that could save Ubie is if its hospital partnerships in the US, like Mayo Clinic, start paying real money for these AI tools at scale rather than just testing them.
Why
01
AI pressure: General-purpose LLMs like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude. Free chatbots now answer symptom questions well enough that Ubie launched its own 'Consult' feature in April 2026 just to keep up. Could AI do the core job? Yes, likely.
02
Bigger players: Google. Google is Ubie's investor and Gemini supplies its hospital AI, but Google could ship its own health triage product and cut Ubie out. Could a giant copy it? Probably.
03
What protects it. 1,800+ Japanese hospitals run on Ubie's platform, plus pharma ad deals and a fresh Mayo Clinic tie-up that took 30 weeks to build.
What would change this call
Google ships a consumer or hospital symptom-triage product built on Gemini within 12 months. Shows Google shifting from Ubie's investor/tech partner to direct competitor.
Mayo Smart Support expands to 3+ new US health systems within 6-12 months. Shows Ubie converting pilots into scaled US hospital revenue.
Ubie's next funding round size and terms versus the March 2025 raise. Shows whether investors still back growth given flat headcount and ~$17M ARR.
Mayo Smart Support expands to 3+ new US health systems within 6-12 months. Shows Ubie converting pilots into scaled US hospital revenue.
Ubie's next funding round size and terms versus the March 2025 raise. Shows whether investors still back growth given flat headcount and ~$17M ARR.
Key numbers
- 1,800+ Japanese medical institutions use Ubie Medical Navigator
- 20M+ monthly symptom-checker users globally
- $125M+ raised cumulatively
Named risks
- Core consumer symptom-checker function is directly replicable by free general-purpose LLM chatbots.
- Hospital AI tools depend on Google's Gemini, a partner that could become a direct competitor.
- New Self-Serve pharma advertising platform (June 2026) could draw regulatory scrutiny in health marketing.
- No audited financials disclosed despite over $125M raised, obscuring true revenue and runway.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Google (Gemini) | contesting | Gemini powers Ubie's hospital documentation tools while Google also invests in and could compete with Ubie, Jan 2026 |
| Ada Health | contesting | Independent BMJ Open benchmark (Dec 16, 2020) rated Ada most accurate/comprehensive among tested symptom checkers |
| General LLM chatbots (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) | gaining on | Forced Ubie to launch defensive Consult LLM April 16, 2026 to retain trust over free chatbot symptom answers |
| Buoy Health, K Health | contesting | Direct US symptom-checker/triage competitors operating in same consumer niche as Ubie through 2026 |
Questions people ask
- Is Ubie profitable in 2026?
- Ubie has not published audited financials. It has raised over $125M cumulatively as of June 26, 2025, and took on additional debt financing in May 2025, a pattern suggesting it still relies on outside capital rather than self-sustaining profit.
- Could ChatGPT or Gemini replace Ubie's symptom checker?
- Ubie itself acknowledges this threat: on April 16, 2026 it launched 'Consult,' a medically-validated LLM, explicitly as a defensive response to the 'explosion of healthcare-focused LLMs and chatbots' eroding trust in general AI symptom answers.
- Who is Ubie's biggest competitor?
- Google occupies an unusual dual role, as both an investor and the provider of Gemini, which powers Ubie's hospital documentation tools (reported January 7, 2026), while also being a potential direct entrant into consumer health AI.
- Does Ubie run its own proprietary AI or someone else's?
- Ubie's hospital-facing documentation tools run on Google's Gemini, not a proprietary model; Google reported January 7, 2026 that Gemini delivered a 33% documentation efficiency gain at Yokokura Hospital and 54% at Kyushu University Hospital.
- How much funding has Ubie raised?
- Ubie announced cumulative funding exceeding $125M as of June 26, 2025, built through Series C rounds in 2022 plus multiple debt financings in 2024 and 2025 led by Japanese banks including Sumitomo Mitsui Trust and Shoko Chukin.
- What is Ubie's partnership with Mayo Clinic?
- On February 12, 2026, Ubie announced a co-developed platform called 'Ubie Smart Support' with Mayo Clinic, following a 30-week pilot in the Mayo Clinic Platform Accelerate program, aimed at unifying the healthcare digital front door.
Timeline
- 2026-06-03Ubie launches Self-Serve programmatic ad platform for pharma targeting by symptom
- 2026-04-16Ubie launches medically-validated Consult LLM to counter general AI chatbots
- 2026-02-12Mayo Clinic and Ubie launch co-developed Ubie Smart Support platform
- 2026-01-07Google reports Gemini gains: 33% at Yokokura, 54% at Kyushu hospital
- 2025-06-26Ubie announces cumulative funding exceeding $125M since 2017
- 2024-09-10medRxiv study reports Ubie 71.6% accuracy vs 72.9% physician median
- 2024-03-20Ubie launches Checkup patient self-monitoring platform
- 2023-10-17Ubie's generative AI note-summarization hits 90% satisfaction, 1,500+ institutions
- 2022-12-09Series C extension adds $19M, TechCrunch source estimates ~$250M valuation
- 2022-08-22Ubie raises $26.2M Series C, cumulative funding reaches $59.8M
Revision history
30 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
- Ubie Announces Cumulative Total Funding of Over $125M (2025-06-26)
- $16.9M ARR, $18.7M Raised (2024-12-19)
- Ubie Launches Self-Serve Platform for Targeted Healthcare Advertising (2026-06-03)
- Ubie Announces Cumulative Total Funding of Over $125M (2025-07-17)
- Ubie - Headcount, Funding & Open Jobs (2026-07-12)
- Ubie Raises $26.2M in Series C (2022-08-22)
- Japan's health tech Ubie wants to fuel its US expansion with $19M Series C extension (2022-12-09)
- Ubie's AI Symptom Checker Used by 2 Million Americans in First Year (2023-12-04)
- Ubie Announces Collaboration to Reinvent the Healthcare Digital Front Door (2026-02-12)
- Ubie's new Generative AI feature for doctors (2023-10-17)
- How Google's Gemini is improving care in Japanese hospitals (2026-01-07)
- cbinsights.com (2026-07-30)