Sunlight AI launched with $17.4M in seed funding to take over the administrative work that pushes independent physicians into the arms of hospitals and private equity.
The company, split between New York and Miami, says it combines practice management infrastructure, human staff and AI into a single operating partner for small practices, handling billing, collections and payer friction while physicians keep ownership. Basis Set Ventures founder Lan Xuexhao led the round, with Sofeon Ventures, Social Leverage, Actions Capital, Overlook Ventures and Early Light Ventures taking part.
Five or six vendors plus an overstretched office manager is the usual arrangement inside a small practice. Sunlight’s argument is that consolidating that stack, with AI doing the repetitive work and people handling exceptions, lowers cost per encounter and lifts collections for care already delivered.
The market pressure is easy to document. Operating expenses for practices climbed about 11% in 2025 while Medicare physician payment has dropped over 30% since 2001, and between 2018 and 2026 hospitals and corporates bought up more than 85,000 practices. Only about 18% of physicians remain independent.
A Yale University and National Bureau of Economic Research study that tracked 276 hospital acquisitions found physician prices rising 15.1% within two years without measurable quality gains, which Sunlight cites as the case for keeping practices free standing.
Founder and CEO Sina Chehrazi previously built Nayya Health, and grew up watching his father, neurosurgeon Barry Chehrazi, absorb rising administrative strain. Bradford Medical Associates is the first of several expected acquisitions as Sunlight builds out the patient-to-payment layer it wants to own.
