How We Chose
We looked at healthcare startup news from September 15 to October 27, 2026 for signs of momentum: regulatory clearances, national launches and partnerships, acquisitions, and growth in customers, patients, or volume that the companies disclosed. We kept companies under HIR's $500 million revenue limit and ranked them by our editors' judgment of how significant the event was and how fast the company is moving. Funding rounds appear only as context.
Hottest Healthcare Startups (November 2026)
| # | Name | Company | Why now |
|---|
| 1 | Elucid | AI heart imaging | FDA clearance for FFR-IQ, Oct 21; Heartflow lawsuit, Oct 22 |
| 2 | Medallion | Provider credentialing | Acquired Andros, Sep 15; 8x growth in credentialing files |
| 3 | Abby Care | Paid family caregiving | Patient census up more than 5x; now in eight states |
| 4 | CertifyOS | Provider credentialing | Shared credentialing program with UnitedHealthcare, Cigna, and Centene |
| 5 | Clairity | AI breast cancer risk | Everlywell rolled out Clairity Breast nationwide |
| 6 | Tiny Health | At-home microbiome testing | Revenue more than doubling each year; B2B arm up 4x |
| 7 | Eko Health | Digital stethoscopes | FDA clearance and launch of the CORE 300, Oct 22 |
92.2%Sensitivity of FFR-IQ in the study behind its FDA clearance
1. Elucid
AI heart imaging
- Company
- Elucid
- Why now
- Announced FDA clearance for FFR-IQ on October 21, 2026; Heartflow sued it on October 22.
Elucid, a Boston company led by chief executive Kelly Huang, makes Plaque-IQ and FFR-IQ, software that reads coronary CT scans to measure plaque and estimate blood flow. FFR-IQ combines the shape of the artery with the makeup of its plaque, an approach Elucid calls BioIntegrated FFR-CT.
Why now
The ELUCIDATE study behind the clearance showed sensitivity of 92.2% and specificity of 93.1%, the highest of any FFR-CT validation study, according to Elucid's announcement. Heartflow filed its lawsuit on October 22, and Elucid said it will defend against the claims. Elucid also raised a Series D in September and hired a chief revenue officer to lead the commercial launch.
Elucid reviewKelly Huang profile
8xGrowth in credentialing files from 2024 to 2026
2. Medallion
Provider credentialing
- Company
- Medallion
- Why now
- Acquired Andros on September 15, 2026, and renewed its NCQA certification through 2029.
Medallion, founded in 2020 by Derek Lo, handles licensing, credentialing, payer enrollment, and monitoring, so clinics and health plans can get clinicians approved to see patients and bill for their care.
Why now
Medallion bought Andros, an NCQA-certified credentials verification organization, adding more than one million providers across nearly 400 organizations, and says the deal makes it the largest AI-native credentialing platform in the country (announcement). It processed 24,739 credentialing files in 2024, 152,382 in 2025, and more than 204,000 so far in 2026, according to its certification update.
Medallion reviewDerek Lo profile
5xGrowth in patient census since its Series B in 2024
3. Abby Care
Paid family caregiving
- Company
- Abby Care
- Why now
- Announced its Series C in October 2026, after its patient census grew more than five times.
Founded by Havi Nguyen, Abby Care trains and certifies family members to care for relatives on Medicaid, employs them as paid caregivers, and pairs each family with a registered nurse care manager.
Why now
Abby Care's patient census has grown more than five times since its Series B in the third quarter of 2024, and it now serves families in the eight states where it operates, with more markets coming, according to its Series C announcement. CVS Health Ventures joined the round, a sign that health plan investors see paid family caregiving as a way to keep members at home.
Abby Care reviewHavi Nguyen profile
3National health plans committed to its shared credentialing program
4. CertifyOS
Provider data and credentialing
- Company
- CertifyOS
- Why now
- Launched a National Shared Credentialing Program with UnitedHealthcare, Cigna Healthcare, and Centene in September 2026.
CertifyOS, founded by Anshul Rathi after six years building Oscar Health's provider network team, sells software that handles credentialing, licensing, and enrollment of clinicians for health plans and digital health companies.
Why now
The new program gives providers a single credentialing home shared by the participating health plans, to cut the duplicate verification work that comes with joining several insurers' networks. "This model will help streamline that process and allow providers to spend more time focused on patient care," Mike Kane of UnitedHealthcare said in the announcement. CertifyOS plans to launch the service in fall 2026.
CertifyOS reviewAnshul Rathi profile
NationwideEverlywell began offering Clairity Breast across the U.S. in October
5. Clairity
AI breast cancer risk
- Company
- Clairity
- Why now
- Everlywell rolled out Clairity Breast nationwide in October 2026.
Clairity, founded by Harvard radiology professor Connie Lehman, makes Clairity Breast, the first FDA-authorized AI that estimates a woman's five-year risk of breast cancer from a routine mammogram.
Why now
Everlywell, which sells at-home lab tests and virtual care, began offering Clairity Breast across its U.S. network during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, according to pharmaphorum. Earlier in 2026, updated National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines added AI-based mammogram risk assessment as an option for identifying women at higher risk, starting at age 35.
Clairity reviewConnie Lehman profile
4xGrowth last year in Powered by Tiny, its business-to-business arm
6. Tiny Health
At-home microbiome testing
- Company
- Tiny Health
- Why now
- Told Crunchbase News in September 2026 that revenue has more than doubled each year.
Cheryl Sew Hoy founded Tiny Health in Austin, Texas, in 2020. It sells gut and vaginal microbiome tests for babies, children, and adults.
Why now
Tiny Health's revenue has more than doubled each year, and Powered by Tiny, which sells tests through healthcare providers and other companies, grew fourfold last year, Sew Hoy told Crunchbase News. More than 6,000 practitioners now use its tests, and it has collected nearly 200,000 microbiome samples, which it plans to draw on for an AI tool called TinyAI.
Tiny Health reviewCheryl Sew Hoy profile
750,000+Eko devices delivered to clinicians
7. Eko Health
Digital stethoscopes and heart AI
- Company
- Eko Health
- Why now
- Received FDA clearance for and launched the CORE 300 stethoscope on October 22, 2026.
Eko Health, co-founded by chief executive Connor Landgraf while he was a bioengineering student at UC Berkeley, makes digital stethoscopes and FDA-cleared AI that flags signs of heart disease during a physical exam.
Why now
The CORE 300 is the first stethoscope to combine traditional and digital listening in one chestpiece, and Eko priced it in line with premium traditional stethoscopes, which brings its AI murmur detection to a much wider group of clinicians, according to its announcement. Eko has delivered more than 750,000 devices.
Eko Health reviewConnor Landgraf profile
What to Watch Next Month
- Elucid and Heartflow. Heartflow's lawsuit will move forward as Elucid starts selling FFR-IQ alongside Plaque-IQ.
- CertifyOS's launch. CertifyOS plans to launch its shared credentialing service with UnitedHealthcare, Cigna Healthcare, and Centene in fall 2026.
- TinyAI. Tiny Health is building an AI tool on its nearly 200,000 microbiome samples to help customers understand their results.
The Hottest Healthcare Startups list is updated monthly. This is the first edition. Past editions will be linked here, and every HIR list and report is in our research library.