There are AI startups, and then there’s Ubie, a company that didn’t just show up at the healthcare party; it built a VIP level guest list, curated the soundtrack, and handed out maps to the future. On June 26, Ubie announced it crossed $125M in cumulative funding. Not in one viral shot. No billion-dollar tweet. Just years of smart grind, medically-vetted AI, and the type of tech that doesn’t guess, it knows. When most startups are still arguing over feature sets, Ubie’s AI is diagnosing symptoms with an accuracy that makes Dr. House look like WebMD.
Founded in May 2017 by high school classmates-turned-co-founders Kota Kubo and Yoshinori Abe, this Tokyo-born rocket is rewriting how patients and providers connect. Kubo’s engineering roots run from Kyoto University to the University of Tokyo, and he cut his teeth at M3 Inc, building consumer health tech before most VCs could spell API. Abe, a physician by training and a data scientist by necessity, turned grief into innovation after losing a patient to a misdiagnosis. Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2020 didn’t crown a founder, it recognized a mission with pulse.
And now? That mission is backed by the likes of Google, JAPAN POST CAPITAL, NTT DOCOMO, SEVEN-ELEVEN JAPAN, and two of Japan’s financial stalwarts, Japan Finance Corporation and The Shoko Chukin Bank. These aren’t moonshot tourists, they’re strategic backers who don’t write checks unless there’s substance under the surface.
Let’s talk scale. Ubie serves over 12 million people monthly. That’s not a number, that’s a movement. Their AI Symptom Checker just passed 4 million U.S. users, with 85% organic growth in the last year. In Japan, their Ubie Medical Navigator is live in over 1,800 medical institutions. The software isn’t pitching hope, it’s delivering it, wrapped in HIPAA-compliant code and trained on 50,000+ clinical data points, with oversight from 50 medical experts who know what matters most: outcomes.
That Google Play AI Award in 2023? Earned. That seat in the Mayo Clinic Platform Accelerate program with access to 3 million anonymized patient records? Strategic. That reach across Japan, the U.S., Singapore, and India? Calculated. Ubie’s expansion isn’t scattershot, it’s surgical.
So what does this latest funding power? More generative AI, deeper provider solutions, and smarter ways to connect patients with the care they need before the waiting room becomes a last resort. With a team of 400 and growing, this isn’t just scaling product, it’s scaling impact.
Big respect to Kota Kubo and Yoshinori Abe. This isn’t about buzzwords or unicorns. This is about building something that actually helps people live longer, healthier lives. Real AI. Real results. And just enough swagger to remind the industry, Ubie’s not asking for permission. They’re leading the round.
