According to VentureBeat, HoloMD just closed a $1.6 million first tranche of its $3 million seed round and will host a virtual investor briefing on November 11, 2025 at 12:00 PM ET. The funding will accelerate development of Dr. Holo, their AI-powered mental health platform that provides daily patient engagement between psychiatrist visits. Founder Bruce A. Kehr, MD leads the company, which has already completed Phase 1 rollout and proven its reimbursement model across multiple commercial payers. The platform uses Remote Therapeutic Monitoring (RTM) CPT codes to turn previously unpaid clinician work into billable services while maintaining human supervision of all AI interactions.
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The human-supervised AI dilemma
Here’s the thing that makes me skeptical: they’re trying to scale AI while keeping humans in the loop for every interaction. That’s expensive. The whole point of AI in healthcare is supposed to be scalability and cost reduction, but if you need licensed clinicians reviewing every daily check-in from every patient, where are the economies of scale? They mention reducing clinician burnout, but now you’re asking these same burned-out clinicians to supervise AI interactions between sessions. Seems like you’re just shifting the burnout rather than eliminating it.
The RTM reimbursement gamble
Their entire business model hinges on Remote Therapeutic Monitoring reimbursement, which is basically the healthcare version of “find the money lying around.” But insurance reimbursement models change constantly. What happens when payers decide RTM codes for psychiatry aren’t worth what they’re paying? Or when more competitors jump in and reimbursement rates get squeezed? Building a company on today’s reimbursement landscape is like building a house on shifting sand. They’ve validated billing across “multiple commercial payers” in early deployments, but scaling that validation nationwide is a completely different challenge.
The mental health AI graveyard
Let’s be real – the mental health tech space is littered with failed AI startups that promised revolutionary outcomes. Remember when chatbots were going to solve the therapist shortage? Most of them discovered that mental health is complicated, messy, and doesn’t fit neatly into algorithmic boxes. HoloMD at least has the advantage of being clinician-led and keeping humans in the loop, but that creates its own scaling problems. And “Dr. Holo™, The AI-Powered Mental Health Superhero™” – come on, that branding feels like they’re trying a bit too hard to make AI seem friendly and approachable.
The path forward might work
To be fair, they’ve actually gotten to revenue in 15 months, which is more than most healthcare AI startups can say. The HoloMD platform addresses a real problem – the massive gap between traditional therapy sessions where patients are basically left to fend for themselves. Daily check-ins could genuinely help with early intervention and preventing crises. And if they can actually make the reimbursement model work while maintaining quality care, they might have something. But that’s a lot of “ifs” for a company that’s only raised $1.6 million so far. The November 11 investor briefing will be telling – let’s see if they can convince more people to buy into their vision of AI with training wheels.
