Surbhi Sarna’s New Venture: Collate Aims to Revolutionize Life Sciences with AI-Powered Automation
Surbhi Sarna, the visionary entrepreneur who sold her ovarian cancer detection startup, nVision Medical, for $275 million in 2018, is back with a bold new venture. This time, she’s tackling one of the most tedious yet critical aspects of the life sciences industry: paperwork. Her new startup, Collate, aims to automate the documentation processes that slow down drug and medical device development, leveraging the power of artificial intelligence (AI).
Announced at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, Collate has already secured $30 million in seed funding, led by Redpoint, with participation from First Round, Conviction Partners, and Y Combinator, where Sarna has served as a partner as 2021. The funding values the fledgling company at over $100 million, a remarkable feat for such an early-stage startup.
From nVision to Collate: A Journey of Innovation
Sarna’s entrepreneurial journey began with a deeply personal mission. At just 13 years old, she suffered from painful ovarian cysts that left doctors unable to determine if they were cancerous. This experience inspired her to found nVision Medical in 2009,a company dedicated to early detection of ovarian cancer. Despite facing skepticism as a young, solo female founder, Sarna persevered, raising $17 million and securing FDA approvals before selling the company to Boston Scientific for $275 million.
Now, Sarna is shifting her focus to a new challenge: the overwhelming paperwork burden faced by life sciences companies. “I realized that there was an chance here, but it could only be started by someone that lived both that documentation piece day-in and day-out, and also understood the power of AI,” Sarna told Forbes.
The Collate Vision: Automating Life Sciences Documentation
life sciences companies are required to produce extensive documentation for every stage of their operations, from research and clinical trials to manufacturing and labeling. This process is not only time-consuming but also prone to errors, delaying the development of potentially life-saving drugs and devices.
Collate aims to streamline this process using generative AI tools, automating much of the documentation work and accelerating development timelines. “If I talk to customers,they say they would use this immediately,” Sarna said.
While Collate is still in its early stages, with no commercial product or customers yet, the company plans to onboard two or three large life sciences customers in the coming months. Satish Dharmaraj, a Midas List investor who led Redpoint’s investment, believes Collate’s approach will be highly impactful. “This is going to be low velocity, high contract value selling, but it’s going to be really sticky, and each buisness is going to get a lot of value out of it,” he said.
A new Chapter for Surbhi Sarna
Sarna’s decision to leave her role at Y Combinator to focus on Collate underscores her commitment to solving complex problems in the life sciences industry. Her journey from a young patient grappling with ovarian cysts to a successful entrepreneur and investor is a testament to her resilience and vision.As Collate emerges from stealth mode, the industry will be watching closely to see how Sarna’s latest venture transforms the way life sciences companies operate. with her track record of innovation and a strong team, including founding chief architect Jigish Patel and cofounder and CTO Nate Smith, Collate is poised to make a meaningful impact.
Key Highlights of Surbhi Sarna’s Journey
| Milestone | Details |
|——————————|—————————————————————————–|
| nVision Medical | Founded in 2009, raised $17M, acquired by Boston Scientific for $275M in 2018. |
| Collate | Launched in 2025,$30M seed funding,valued at over $100M. |
| Y Combinator | Served as a partner from 2021 to 2025. |
| Mission | Automating life sciences documentation using AI. |
Surbhi Sarna’s story is a powerful reminder that innovation often stems from personal challenges. With Collate, she’s once again pushing boundaries, aiming to revolutionize an industry that touches millions of lives.
What’s next for Collate? Stay tuned as this groundbreaking startup begins its journey to transform the life sciences landscape.
Surbhi Sarna: From Y Combinator to Building Collate, a Life Sciences AI Startup
Surbhi sarna, a trailblazer in the healthcare and biotech space, has once again stepped into the entrepreneurial spotlight with her latest venture, Collate. Known for her groundbreaking work in biomedical devices and her tenure at Y Combinator (YC), Sarna is now tackling a new challenge: revolutionizing document creation for the life sciences industry using large language models (LLMs).
A Journey from Biomedical Devices to AI
Sarna’s entrepreneurial journey began with nVision Medical, a startup she founded to address a critical gap in women’s healthcare. Inspired by a personal health scare, she developed the first and only FDA-cleared device to collect cells from fallopian tubes, offering a potential early diagnosis for ovarian cancer. At just 32, she sold nVision to Boston Scientific for $275 million, a milestone that cemented her reputation as a visionary in the healthcare space.
After her success with nVision, Sarna joined Y Combinator in 2021 as its first-ever partner focused on healthcare and biotech. During her time at YC, she played a pivotal role in expanding the accelerator’s support for life science startups.“she funded really great companies that we are going to continue to support,” said Garry Tan, YC’s president and CEO, who is also a personal investor in Collate. “She came up from more of a biomedical devices background, and I like to think that in her time at YC, she blossomed into someone who could work on software as well.”
The Birth of Collate
Despite her success at YC, Sarna always knew she wanted to build another startup. At 39, with her two children in school, she saw an opportunity to address a critical pain point in the life sciences industry: document creation. “Document creation for the life science industry may sound super-boring, not a sexy thing to work on,” she said. “But it’s a gigantic opportunity, and there’s no way you could do this with deterministic code. You needed large language models.”
To bring her vision to life, Sarna teamed up with Nate Smith, a former YC visiting partner and cofounder of Lever, a recruiting platform acquired by Employ Inc. in 2022. The partnership began organically during a casual catch-up at Sarna’s house, where her 8-year-old son inadvertently played matchmaker by asking, “Is this another cofounder discussion?”
“It was very organic and very cute,” Smith recalled. The conversation led to Smith joining Collate as its chief technology officer, bringing his expertise in software and AI to complement Sarna’s deep knowledge of the life sciences industry.
Collate’s Mission: Automating Life Sciences Documentation
Collate aims to streamline the often tedious and time-consuming process of document creation in the life sciences sector.By leveraging large language models, the startup seeks to automate workflows that traditionally require significant manual effort. While numerous companies are using AI to automate parts of the healthcare stack, Collate stands out by focusing specifically on the unique needs of life sciences documentation.
Key Milestones in Surbhi Sarna’s Career
| Year | Milestone |
|———-|——————————————————————————-|
| 2014 | Named to Forbes 30 under 30 list for her work with nVision Medical. |
| 2018 | Sold nVision Medical to Boston Scientific for $275 million. |
| 2021 | Joined Y Combinator as its first healthcare and biotech partner. |
| 2023 | Launched Collate, focusing on AI-driven document creation for life sciences. |
What’s Next for Collate?
With Sarna’s proven track record in healthcare innovation and Smith’s expertise in AI and software, Collate is poised to make a significant impact in the life sciences industry. The startup’s focus on leveraging large language models to automate documentation processes could not only save time but also improve accuracy and compliance in a highly regulated field.
As Sarna and Smith continue to build Collate, their partnership serves as a testament to the power of collaboration and the unexpected ways in which great ideas can come to life.
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For more insights into Surbhi Sarna’s journey and the latest developments in healthcare innovation, explore her Forbes profile and stay tuned for updates on Collate’s progress.Collate Raises $30 Million to Revolutionize Drug Discovery with AI-Powered LLMs
In a bold move to redefine the landscape of drug discovery, Collate, a cutting-edge AI-driven company, has secured $30 million in funding to accelerate its mission. The company’s innovative use of large language models (LLMs) in drug discovery is setting it apart in a crowded field of AI tools. According to supporters, Collate’s unique breadth of capabilities gives it a significant edge over competitors.
“Everybody who has a tool is going to say they are an AI tool today. There are lots of players around the niches,” said Josh Kopelman of First Round, a key investor in Collate. “If the average company we work with needs to create 5,000 documents, failure [for Surbhi] is creating 2,000. Surbhi wants to create all 5,000 of them.”
This ambitious vision underscores Collate’s commitment to leveraging LLMs to streamline and scale the drug discovery process. By automating the creation of complex documents and enhancing data analysis,collate aims to reduce the time and cost traditionally associated with bringing new drugs to market.With the fresh infusion of capital, Collate is poised to expand its product offerings and rapidly grow its engineering team. Co-founder Sarna emphasized the importance of building a strong company culture, stating, “At this point, I’m very clear on the type of culture I want to build and the type of people I want to surround myself with. That is one of the greatest joys and privileges of building your own company.” She added, “This time, we’re going to be much quicker, and I will be more precise.”
The company’s approach aligns with broader trends in the biotech industry, where LLMs are increasingly being used to unlock new possibilities in drug development. As a notable example, recent advancements in Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) have shown how LLMs can interact with external data sources to enhance drug discovery pipelines [[2]].
Key highlights of collate’s Strategy
| Aspect | Details |
|————————–|—————————————————————————–|
| Funding | $30 million raised to scale operations and hire top engineering talent. |
| Core Technology | Leveraging LLMs to automate document creation and streamline drug discovery.|
| Competitive Edge | breadth of capabilities and ambitious scaling goals. |
| Leadership vision | Focus on building a strong, precise, and fast-growing company culture. |
Collate’s journey is a testament to the transformative potential of LLMs in biotechnology. As the company moves forward, its ability to execute on its ambitious vision will be closely watched by industry leaders and innovators alike.
For more insights into how LLMs are reshaping drug discovery, explore how other companies are integrating these advanced AI models into their workflows [[1]].
What are your thoughts on the role of AI in drug discovery? Share your perspectives and join the conversation below.
