Brado and Santé Ventures Partner to Transform Patient Navigation and Engagement

Investment spurs creation of Brado AI, a dedicated technology entity focused on extending provider reach through conversational AI

ST. LOUIS, Jan. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Brado, a healthcare engagement and technology company, today announced a strategic investment partnership with Santé Ventures, a leading healthcare and life sciences venture capital firm. The partnership will accelerate the growth and impact of Brado's Conversational Engagement Platform (CEP), an AI-powered solution designed to extend the reach of providers and transform how patients navigate and engage with care.

As part of the investment, Brado has established Brado AI, a new, dedicated legal entity focused on advancing the company's technology portfolio. This structural evolution enables direct capital investment into Brado's rapidly growing technology solutions while maintaining Brado's established market research and digital marketing operations within the original organization.

"This is more than a financial partnership – it's a launchpad," said Andy Parham, CEO of Brado and Brado AI. "By creating Brado AI and partnering with Santé Ventures, we can accelerate innovation, scale faster, and extend the trusted reach of providers across every stage of the patient journey. This investment allows us to accelerate and expand our roadmap, advancing mid-acuity triage and precision routing – capabilities that are critical to extending provider capacity and guiding patients to the right care at the right moment."

Extending the Reach of Trusted Providers
Built on Brado's nearly 30-year foundation of healthcare journey research, the CEP helps patients find clarity and connection in an increasingly fragmented healthcare landscape. Through natural, empathetic conversation, the platform answers questions, explains options, and guides patients to the right next step in care.

Each CEP implementation is custom configured to reflect a health system's brand, services, safety protocols, and clinical standards of care, supported by rigorous content governance and privacy controls. Conversations are clinically aligned, brand-authentic, and designed to strengthen the patient–provider relationship.

Proven in Market, Ready to Scale
The platform's first implementation – Catherine by Mercy Health (Bon Secours Mercy Health) – launched in 2023 to support dementia caregivers. Since then, Brado's CEP has expanded to three additional regional health systems, helping thousands of patients navigate and engage with care more confidently and efficiently.

Powered by Santé Ventures
Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Santé Ventures manages more than $1 billion in capital and invests in early-stage healthcare technologies that redefine clinical care and delivery models.

"Brado's Conversational Engagement Platform represents a new category of applied AI in healthcare," said Doug French, Founding Managing Director at Santé Ventures. "It extends provider capacity, improves access, and helps patients take the next step with confidence – exactly the kind of innovation Santé exists to accelerate."
Santé's investment will fuel Brado AI's product roadmap and expansion into additional service lines, including cardiology, oncology, maternal health, bariatrics, and behavioral health, while enabling the platform to evolve into a comprehensive enterprise navigation solution for health systems nationwide.

Driving Targeted Growth, Retention, and Efficiency
Health systems leveraging Brado's CEP are achieving measurable improvements across growth, engagement, and operational efficiency by:

• Acquiring consumers earlier in their journey through proactive, guided engagement
• Guiding and preparing patients for more effective and efficient clinical encounters
• Optimizing capacity by automating outreach and reducing administrative burden

About Brado AI
Brado AI is a healthcare technology company focused on the development and deployment of applied artificial intelligence solutions for healthcare organizations. Its core offering, the Conversational Engagement Platform (CEP), helps providers engage, guide, and support patients across care journeys through trusted, AI-driven interactions. Brado AI partners with healthcare organizations to extend access, improve navigation, and strengthen connection to care. Learn more at www.brado.ai.

About Santé Ventures
Founded in 2006, Santé Ventures is a specialized healthcare and life sciences investment firm with roughly $1 billion in capital under management. The firm invests in early-stage companies developing innovative new medical technologies, biotechnologies, and digitally enabled healthcare services. Recent Santé successes include Laminar (Johnson & Johnson), Farapulse (Boston Scientific), Healthcare Highways – CerpassRx (Nomi Health), Claret Medical (Boston Scientific), TVA Medical (Becton Dickinson), Millipede Medical (Boston Scientific), Molecular Templates (MTEM), AbVitro (Bristol Myers Squibb), and Explorys (IBM Corp). Santé invests nationally and has offices in Austin, TX and Boston, MA. For more information, please visit www.sante.com.

Media Contact:
Kim Bowers, Chief Operating Officer, Brado AI
[email protected]
314.621.9499

Santé Ventures Press and Community Relations
[email protected]
512.721.1200

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SOURCE Brado