Former Palantir healthcare head raises £10M for NHS AI agent startup

A London-based startup founded by a former Palantir healthcare executive has raised £9.7 million in a new funding round. Frontier Health, which now has £11.9 million in total funding, is building AI tools to cut the administrative workload that NHS staff deal with every day.

The round was led by Atomico, the European venture capital firm, with XYZ Venture Capital and Firstminute Capital also participating. The startup was founded in 2024 by Rachel Finegold, who previously worked as Palantir's healthcare lead across 40 NHS hospitals during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Finegold told The Times: "There physically weren't enough administrators to support this integral machinery that needs to happen to keep patients moving through the system and to get patients their care." That experience is the direct inspiration for what Frontier Health is building now.

How does it work?

Frontier Health has built an AI agent called Juno that works alongside NHS administrative teams rather than replacing them. It handles the kind of routine, time-consuming tasks that pile up in busy hospital environments:

• Booking patient appointments
• Helping staff work through complex hospital systems
• Identifying risks in patient pathways
• Keeping patients moving safely through their care journey

Importantly, Juno knows its limits. If it encounters something it doesn't understand during a case, it flags a human to step in. East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust is listed on the company's website as a current client.

Frontier Health plans to use the new funding to expand across more NHS trusts and grow its team beyond its current 12 people.

Why does it matter?

The NHS is under sustained pressure, and admin backlogs are a real part of that problem. Frontier Health points to projections showing healthcare systems globally could face a shortfall of 10 million workers by 2030. The argument is that reducing the administrative burden on existing staff is one practical way to close that gap, without waiting for more people to be hired or trained.

For patients, the stakes are straightforward: delayed admin means delayed care. Tools that help existing staff work faster and with fewer errors could have a direct impact on waiting times and outcomes.

Atomico put it plainly in a statement: "As healthcare systems face growing demand and limited resources, we believe supportive AI can become critical infrastructure, augmenting frontline teams and improving care delivery."

The context

Frontier Health is entering a space where Palantir, Finegold's former employer, already has deep roots. Over 50% of NHS trusts in England currently use Palantir software to manage waiting lists. That gives Frontier Health a well-mapped market, but also a well-established competitor.

Palantir's NHS presence is not without controversy. The British Medical Association has called on the NHS to drop Palantir entirely, citing the company's work with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Whether that political pressure creates an opening for newer, UK-focused AI companies like Frontier Health remains to be seen.

More broadly, the push to automate NHS admin is picking up speed. A growing number of startups and established tech firms are competing for NHS contracts, and the government has signaled that AI adoption in public services is a priority. Frontier Health is positioning itself at the practical end of that shift, focused on the unglamorous but essential work of keeping hospitals running on time.