US hospitals are still trying to plug a labor gap with contract and temporary staff. The bill is already close to $97 billion a year, and the shortage has not gone away.
Stepful, a Y Combinator company, has now raised $55 million in Series C funding led by Oak HC/FT. Its pitch is direct: use AI to run a faster training pipeline for allied healthcare roles that hospitals can hire into immediately.
Not another AI tool, but a school built on AI
Stepful is not selling another assistant to doctors or nurses. It is taking on the education layer itself. CEO Carl Madi describes the company as both a school and a technology company.
The platform uses an AI engine to compress training and certification that used to take months and cost more money. It focuses on allied health jobs such as nursing support and respiratory therapy, where hospitals need workers badly but do not need every candidate to start with medical school.
Stepful says it has already graduated more than 32,000 job-ready students and works with over 35 healthcare systems.
Investors show where the market is heading
Oak HC/FT led the round. New investors include Foresite Capital, Hearst Ventures and Citi Impact Fund, while SemperVirens, Y Combinator, Intermountain Health and ECMC returned.
Intermountain Health is the signal worth watching: it is a real healthcare system, likely both a customer and an investor. When the buyer also writes a check, the validation is stronger than a financing headline alone.
Stepful previously raised a $31.5 million Series B, also led by Oak HC/FT. Across the two rounds, the YC company has raised nearly $90 million.
Oak HC/FT's Vig Chandramouli said the firm had not seen another company combine online education and a mature AI engine at this scale to solve the healthcare talent supply problem.
Where the money goes next
Madi laid out three uses for the new capital: sign more hospital partners, move into higher-level degree programs such as nursing and respiratory therapy, and keep investing in the AI engine behind the platform.
The bet is structural. If US hospitals continue spending heavily on temporary labor, a faster and cheaper path to permanent healthcare staff remains a business, not a side project.
Much of the AI market is aimed at replacing white-collar tasks: coding, spreadsheets and email. Stepful is moving in the opposite direction. It does not replace workers; it tries to produce more of them for work that still needs hands, credentials and a physical workplace.
Sources: CocoLoop, Stepful Raises $55M to Scale AI Healthcare Training (HIT Consultant), Stepful banks $55M to scale AI-powered medical training (Fierce Healthcare), Stepful Raises $55M Series C to Expand AI Healthcare Training (Ventureburn)