$40M Series A for Baba, a Medicare care navigation startup

Baba, a New York startup that helps people on Medicare manage their care, raised a $40 million Series A. FirstMark Capital led the round, the company announced on Oct 20. CVS Health Ventures and Valtruis joined as new investors. General Catalyst, Genius Ventures and Ground Up Ventures came back from earlier rounds.

Baba says the round brings its total funding to $47 million. FirstMark and Valtruis each confirmed the deal on their own sites the same day.

What Baba does

Baba gives each patient a care team of care coordinators and licensed therapists, and that team works with the patient’s doctors and insurer. Baba’s homepage lists the jobs it takes on:

• working through an appeal when an insurer denies care
• finding an in network specialist and making sure the referral is in place
• getting medical equipment with the doctor, insurer and supplier
• checking coverage and assistance programs for prescription costs
• booking rides to appointments
• checking in after a hospital stay, explaining medication changes and booking the follow up visit
• applying for help with food and utility bills

The site says the support is “covered by Medicare for eligible members” and that Baba accepts hundreds of plans in all 50 states. In Baba’s model, AI fills out forms, waits on hold and runs the follow up, FirstMark wrote. That leaves the coordinators free for the work that needs a person. Insurers are adding AI helpers of their own, as covered in 21 million UnitedHealthcare members get AI companion Avery.

Baba plans to spend the money on AI research, more health plan clients and value based contracts, where it gets paid for results, per its press release. Connor Sweeney is the founder and CEO. Baba launched publicly in February, the company says.

How many people use it

These numbers are company reported and have not been checked by anyone else. Baba says it has supported more than 10,000 patients and families across the U.S. It says more than 100,000 families are on its waiting list (Baba press release, Oct 20, 2026).

The CMS ACCESS Model

Baba says CMS accepted it in June into the ACCESS Model across all four of the model’s clinical tracks. FirstMark repeated the claim in its Oct 20 post.

ACCESS is a 10 year CMS Innovation Center test that began July 5, 2026, per the CMS model page. It runs in Original Medicare. Care groups get recurring payments for managing a patient’s chronic conditions. Full payment depends on measured results, such as lower blood pressure. The four tracks that launched are:

• early cardio kidney metabolic (eCKM): high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity or overweight, and prediabetes
• cardio kidney metabolic (CKM): diabetes, chronic kidney disease and heart disease from clogged arteries
• musculoskeletal (MSK): chronic muscle and joint pain
• behavioral health (BH): depression and anxiety

CMS plans to add tracks for heart failure, COPD, substance use disorder and quitting tobacco on April 1, 2027.

CMS’s participant list, last updated Oct 20, 2026, names more than 160 organizations by their registered names. None is listed as Baba, and Baba’s posts do not say which name it is listed under. WHOOP Physician Services, Withings Medical Group and Noom are on the list. Oura says Counsel Health will use ring data from consenting patients in ACCESS, as covered in Oura adds Cardio Effort and automatic VO2 max to its ring.

People on Medicare Advantage are not in ACCESS itself. CMS says Medicare Advantage plans can set up similar pay for results deals with their own providers. CMS also says private payers with 165 million members have committed to align with the ACCESS payment approach. Those members span Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and commercial coverage.

Why it matters: Baba says it is building toward contracts that pay for results. ACCESS works that way: CMS ties full payment to whether a patient’s condition improves, not to the number of visits or calls. The $40M gives Baba money to grow its care teams while it tries to prove the model works.