Verana Health
Curates real-world clinical data from medical society registries and sells it to biopharma and providers.
On the record
Checkpoint: IRIS Registry and other specialty-society contract renewal cycle
The call
The registry contracts genuinely block competitors for now, but the company running on top of them is burning cash fast and mid-merger, so the data lock and the balance sheet are pulling in opposite directions.
Verana Health buys detailed medical records from eye doctors, neurologists, and urologists, then sells cleaned-up data and compliance tools to insurance companies and pharmaceutical firms. The company has signed long-term contracts with these doctor groups that competitors like IQVIA and Optum cannot easily break, which is its main strength. However, Verana is losing money fast, has unhappy employees, just merged with another company in January 2026, and faces a real threat from AI systems that can read medical records automatically (like Chart Hero from Penn) plus medical software companies like Epic that are building their own data tools. The whole picture hinges on whether Verano can keep renewing those doctor-group contracts over the next year and whether it can raise more money without giving away too much of the company.
Why
01
AI pressure: Frontier LLM clinical summarization tools (e.g. Penn's Chart Hero) and Epic's native registry tools. LLMs can extract and structure clinical notes directly, threatening to commoditize the curation work Verana charges for. Could AI do the core job? Only partly.
02
Bigger players: IQVIA, Optum (UnitedHealth), Epic Systems. IQVIA and Optum have scale and distribution; Epic sits inside the EHR and could ship registry extraction as a feature, not a product. Could a giant copy it? No, they are blocked.
03
What protects it. Exclusive multi-year data contracts with AAO's IRIS Registry, AUA's AQUA Registry, and a formal MIPS reporting role that outsiders cannot copy overnight.
What would change this call
Whether AAO's IRIS Registry contract is renewed or lapses by late 2026. Tests whether Verana's core data-partnership moat is holding or eroding.
Verana announces a new funding round and its terms within the next 6 to 12 months. A down-round or distressed raise would confirm financial strain relative to its burn.
Epic or another EHR vendor ships a native specialty-registry curation feature. Would show a giant bypassing Verana's data-stewardship role directly.
Verana announces a new funding round and its terms within the next 6 to 12 months. A down-round or distressed raise would confirm financial strain relative to its burn.
Epic or another EHR vendor ships a native specialty-registry curation feature. Would show a giant bypassing Verana's data-stewardship role directly.
Key numbers
- ~$340M raised cumulative across rounds
- Revenue estimated $9M-$40M, unverified
- Glassdoor rating 2.7/5 citing frequent layoffs
Named risks
- Financial fragility: roughly $340M raised against $9-40M estimated revenue with no disclosed profitability.
- Employee instability: 2.7/5 Glassdoor rating and reports of frequent layoffs as of April 2026.
- COTA merger integration still early-stage as of July 2026, execution risk over next 6 to 12 months.
- Loss or non-renewal of flagship IRIS Registry or other society contracts would erode core data moat.
- EHR vendors like Epic building native AI registry-curation tools could commoditize Verana's curation layer.
Rivals, as read in July 2026
| Rival | Direction | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| IQVIA | contesting | Larger claims and EHR data assets but cannot replicate Verana's exclusive society registry contracts, per Pitchbook profile |
| Optum (UnitedHealth Group) | contesting | Broader life-sciences relationships noted vs Verana's niche society-registry exclusivity, per Pitchbook, n.d. |
| Epic (EHR-native AI curation) | losing to | Penn's Epic-integrated Chart Hero piloted with 50 plus clinicians as of January 2026, threatening curation layer |
| COTA, Inc. | gaining on | Former oncology RWD competitor absorbed into Verana via January 2026 merger |
| TriNetX, Aetion, Veradigm | contesting | Listed as closest peers by Pitchbook, no market-share data disclosed, n.d. |
Questions people ask
- Is Verana Health profitable in 2026?
- No profitability has been disclosed. Verana Health is private with revenue estimates ranging $9M to $40M (third-party estimates, not company-disclosed) against roughly $340M raised cumulatively, including a $52M equity infusion tied to the January 2026 COTA merger. No profitability path has been published as of July 2026.
- Could AI replace Verana Health's data curation business?
- Partially exposed. Frontier LLM tools like Penn Medicine's Epic-integrated Chart Hero, piloted with 50+ clinicians by January 2026, show health systems building in-house AI chart curation. But Verana's exclusive multi-year contracts with AAO's IRIS Registry and AUA's AQUA Registry give it data access AI cannot replicate without similar society partnerships.
- Who are Verana Health's biggest competitors?
- Per Pitchbook, Verana's closest peers are TriNetX, Aetion, Meditech, ArborMetrix, and Veradigm. Larger incumbents IQVIA and Optum (UnitedHealth Group) hold far bigger claims and EHR data assets. COTA, Inc. was a direct oncology-RWD competitor until Verana merged with it in January 2026.
- Who owns Verana Health?
- Verana Health is privately held and venture-backed, with no IPO or acquisition by a strategic parent as of July 2026. Investors from Series C through E include GV, Johnson & Johnson Innovation JJDC, Novo Growth, Casdin Capital, and Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, per a January 2022 PR Newswire release.
- Did Verana Health merge with COTA?
- Yes. Verana Health merged with oncology real-world-data firm COTA, Inc. in January 2026, with existing institutional and industry investors committing an additional $52M in equity, per a January 8, 2026 company announcement. Terms of the underlying merger itself were undisclosed.
- How much funding has Verana Health raised in total?
- Cumulative disclosed funding is roughly $280M to $340M across Series A through E, including a $30M Series C in 2018, a $100M Series D in February 2020, and a $150M Series E in January 2022, plus a $52M equity commitment tied to the January 2026 COTA merger.
Timeline
- 2026-05-21Delivered update to real-world-data bladder cancer database
- 2026-04-28Launched Agent Claire, an AI agent for MIPS compliance reporting
- 2026-01-22Named Growth and Innovation Leader in Frost & Sullivan's 2025 Frost Radar for RWE
- 2026-01-08Merged with COTA, Inc; investors committed additional $52M in equity
- 2024-09Launched Qdata BPH (benign prostatic hyperplasia) module
- 2022-01-14Closed $150M Series E led by J&J JJDC and Novo Growth
- 2020-02Closed $100M Series D funding round
- 2018DigiSight Technologies rebranded as Verana Health, per TechCrunch
Revision history
22 July 2026
First assessed. Protection under test. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.
In the same band
Sources
- Verana Health 2026 Company Profile
- Digital Health Leader Verana Health Secures $150M Series E Funding Round (2022-01-14)
- Verana Health Merges with COTA to Dramatically Expand Scale, Velocity, and Depth of Real-World Data Offerings (2026-01-08)
- How Much Did Verana Health Raise? (2026-05-24)
- Verana Health - HealthTech - Reviews & Alternatives (2026-07-14)
- How to Buy, Valuation, Stock Price, IPO (2026-07-09)
- Verana Health Reviews (2026-06-18)
- New Verana Health AI Agent Boosts Efficiency and Compliance in MIPS Submissions (2026-04-28)
- How Verana Health Uses the Databricks Lakehouse to Democratize Data and Deploy AI for Medical Innovation (n.d. (blog referencing 2023 collaboration))
- Verana Health Delivers Powerful Update to RWD Bladder Cancer Database (2026-05-21)
- Verana Health Named Growth and Innovation Leader in 2025 Frost Radar for Life Sciences Real-World Evidence Sol (2026-01-22)
- Center for Health Care Transformation and Innovation (Chart Hero)