Parallel, a French startup revolutionizing healthcare administration, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding. The round was led by Frst, with support from prominent investors like Y Combinator, Bpifrance, Kima Ventures, Better Angle, and several business angels. The funds will help the company expand its engineering team, speed up hospital deployments, and develop more AI-driven solutions aimed at reducing administrative burdens in healthcare.
Addressing Hospital Administrative Inefficiencies
Hospitals around the world are grappling with significant administrative inefficiencies, which can account for up to 25% of total healthcare spending. These costs are largely driven by manual data entry, outdated software that fails to integrate with other systems, and the lack of effective automation in hospital back offices. Despite technological advancements, many hospitals still rely on inefficient processes that require staff to toggle between multiple systems, manually input data, and close workflow gaps.
This inefficiency is worsened by ongoing staff shortages and increasing patient demand. Healthcare professionals often find themselves spending more time on administrative tasks than patient care. As a result, hospitals are facing pressure to adopt automation solutions to streamline operations, reduce costs, and improve patient care.
Parallel’s Generative AI Solution
Founded in Paris in 2024 by Paul Lafforgue (formerly with Meta) and Thomas Sohet (former CTO at Yago.be), Parallel’s mission is to reduce hospital administrative burdens by creating AI agents that handle repetitive and time-consuming tasks. The startup is addressing one of the most labor-intensive aspects of healthcare administration: medical coding.
Parallel is harnessing the power of generative AI to automate complex medical workflows, starting with medical coding. These AI agents can navigate existing hospital software systems without the need for costly integrations, streamlining workflows and improving accuracy. By leveraging large language models, Parallel can free healthcare professionals from time-consuming administrative work, allowing them to focus more on patient care.
Transforming Medical Coding with AI
Medical coding is one of the most error-prone and labor-intensive tasks in hospitals. It involves converting clinical notes into standardized billing codes, a process traditionally handled by trained professionals. This workflow is prone to human error and can delay insurance reimbursements, complicating hospital operations.
Parallel’s AI-powered agent simplifies this process by reading clinical documentation, identifying the appropriate codes, and automatically entering them into hospital systems. This reduces the need for manual data entry, minimizes errors, and speeds up the billing cycle. By automating this crucial task, Parallel helps hospitals enhance operational efficiency and maintain compliance with coding standards.
What sets Parallel’s solution apart is that its AI agents are specifically designed to address the complexities of healthcare. Instead of requiring major system overhauls, these agents integrate with existing hospital software, bridging gaps in workflows without disrupting operations.
The Future of AI in Healthcare Administration
The demand for AI-driven automation solutions in healthcare is growing rapidly, as hospitals seek ways to reduce administrative burdens without compromising accuracy or compliance. Parallel’s strategy of creating specialized vertical AI agents for healthcare administration positions the company as a leader in this transformation. With strong investor support and a clear vision, Parallel is set to redefine how hospitals manage administrative workflows, moving towards a more efficient and smarter healthcare system.
Paul Lafforgue, co-founder and CEO of Parallel, highlights the progress made by the startup, saying, “AI agents can now interact with software like humans—navigating screens, clicking buttons, and entering data efficiently and accurately. In healthcare, where outdated systems and weak APIs have made automation challenging, this technology can finally bridge the gap.”
Dr. Louis Rousselet, Head of Medical Information at GHICL, adds, “Parallel’s approach is excellent. Their AI agent brings a level of auditability and accuracy that simply doesn’t exist today. In just three months, they’ve built a solution that could significantly streamline coding workflows and reduce administrative burden in hospitals.”
Pierre Entremont, Co-founder & Managing Partner at Frst, emphasizes the importance of Parallel’s work, noting, “Parallel is tackling one of the most overlooked, yet crucial problems in healthcare—administrative overload. Recent advances in AI enable a step-change in efficiency that was previously out of reach. By working with existing tools rather than replacing them, it also makes adoption much more practical for hospitals.”
