Portugal's Usawa raises $3M seed to bring its AI health platform to the US
What's the deal? Usawa CareDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a Portuguese digital health startup, has raised $3 million in a seed round led by ArmilarDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, with Start VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Oxy CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and investor Jorge Marques participating. The company combines artificial intelligence with physician oversight, and will use the funds to strengthen its product and engineering teams, launch an adult care service, and enter the US market.
What's the endgame? Usawa started with paediatric care on a platform that uses AI to collect information and organise clinical work while doctors keep responsibility for decisions. The platform is now used by more than 10,000 children, families rate it 9.7 out of 10 on average, and over 70% say it helped them avoid an unnecessary in-person visit.
Why now? An adult care service launches on October 12, extending Usawa from paediatrics to health for the whole family. The company also plans to accelerate its US entry by the end of the year and hire across engineering, AI, and product.
Who's building it? Founder and chief executive officer Luís Almeida Fernandes led Portugal's SNS24 and National TeleHealth Centre and was a partner at McKinseyDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, where he directed digital health projects in the US. The team includes a paediatric intensive care doctor, a former Sword Health product lead, and two engineers who previously worked at Unbabel.
"We believe the next generation of healthcare will combine the best doctors with well-designed technology," Fernandes said (translated from Portuguese).
What could go wrong? Armilar principal Pedro Castel-Branco framed the challenge as making high-quality clinical care more efficient and accessible while "reinforcing trust, safety, and medical responsibility" — a balance that gets harder as the platform scales into adult care and a new market.
The signal: At $3 million, Usawa's round ranks around the 91st percentile among all-time seed rounds for AI startups in Portugal, a sign of investor appetite for AI applied to healthcare. Armilar, a Lisbon venture firm founded in 2000, manages more than €500 million and backs early-stage tech companies.
Read more: jornaleconomico.sapo.pt
Image credit: Usawa Care
