Healthcare IT · Payor operations automation
Delfino AI
A voice AI platform that places the phone calls a provider’s office has to make to a health insurer: benefit checks, prior authorization status, claim follow up. It is also a company that appears to have rebuilt itself once already, and independent sources do not fully agree on who built it or when.
The pitch
A clinic sends Delfino AI a request: a patient’s information and a question for the insurer, such as whether a provider is in network or what a copay will be. Delfino AI’s platform places the call itself. According to the company’s website, “Our AI-powered platform can navigate IVRs, wait on hold and have a conversation with a live person.”
The call types listed on the site are narrow and specific: eligibility and benefit verification, prior authorization requirement and status checks, and claim status inquiries and follow up. The company says it uses Vanta to monitor and maintain HIPAA compliance.
The problem
Verifying insurance benefits and chasing prior authorizations are some of the most repetitive tasks in a medical office, and they are usually done by a person on hold with a payor’s call center. Delfino AI’s own description, repeated across its Y Combinator listing and its LinkedIn page, is that it “helps automate the repetitive calls that providers’ offices make to payors.” PitchBook describes the same idea from the payor side of the transaction: an “operator of an AI-powered platform intended to automate benefit verification phone calls to payors” that aims to prevent claims denials through upfront checks.
No FDA filing, clinical trial registration or federal research grant for Delfino AI turned up in this search. That is expected for a back-office software company; the evidence for a company like this sits in customer traction, revenue and funding records, not in a regulatory database.
Founders, one story or two
The clearest founder account is a first-person one. On August 30, 2022, a Hacker News post titled “Launch HN: Be Golden (YC S22)” opened: “Hi HN! This is Sneh and Kimberly from Be Golden.” The poster went on: “I (Sneh) am a PharmD and the CEO; Kimberly has a PhD in biology and is the CTO.” Be Golden, the post explained, was an at-home finger prick blood test and digital platform for tracking inflammation levels, and the CEO wrote that he started tracking his own inflammation scores after learning he was at high risk of breast cancer and had a bilateral lumpectomy.
Y Combinator’s own listing for the company, which now shows the Delfino AI name and description, carries a founder bio that matches only the Kimberly side of that story: “Kimberly’s expertise in consumer health comes from leading a data science team at 23andMe.” The bio adds a bachelor’s degree from MIT and a Ph.D. in biology from Stanford. A BEAMSTART profile for Be Golden, describing both founders together, says: “Our founders have a PharmD + MBA from Harvard and a PhD from Stanford and led teams at 23andMe and McKinsey.”
A separate account, from the Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Accelerator, credits only one person and a later year. Its March 2024 cohort announcement states plainly: “Sneh Patel, a Harvard Business School graduate, launched the company in 2023.” The accelerator’s team page repeats the claim in nearly identical words: “Delfino AI was founded in 2023 by Harvard Business School graduate Sneh Patel.” That page lists both Sneh Patel and Kimberly McManus under the Delfino AI team, with no title given for either. Separately, GetLatka and FounderTrace, two company data sites, also list Sneh Patel alone as founder and current CEO, matching his LinkedIn headline, “CEO @ Delfino AI.”
None of these sources cite each other, and none is a government record. What can be said is that Sneh Patel and Kimberly McManus co-founded Be Golden together by their own account, and Sneh Patel is the person every later source names as founder and CEO of Delfino AI.
From inflammation testing to insurance calls
The clearest evidence of a pivot is the Y Combinator company page itself. The URL and jobs board entry for “be-golden” now display the Delfino AI name, description and job postings, while the page’s “Company Launches” section still shows the original Be Golden launch post about inflammation testing. Y Combinator does not appear to have created a second, separate listing for Delfino AI; it reused the Be Golden record.
The Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Accelerator named Delfino AI to its inaugural 2024 cohort, describing it as a company that “streamlines doctors’ offices by automating repetitive calls to insurance companies, enhancing revenue and efficiency.” That is a different business than an at-home blood test for inflammation. By the time of that announcement, the consumer health product is not mentioned at all.
Revenue estimates suggest the company found more traction with the second idea. GetLatka, which builds revenue estimates from public and self-reported data, states: “Delfino AI generated an estimated $550K in annual revenue in 2025.” The same profile lists 2021 as “Launched with $0 revenue” and records 5 employees as of 2024.
What is proven, and what is still claimed
| Evidence | What the record shows | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| Founding story | Sneh Patel and Kimberly McManus jointly introduced Be Golden on Hacker News in Aug 2022, Patel as CEO and PharmD, McManus as CTO and PhD in biology. | Independent |
| Founder attribution, later sources | Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Accelerator credits Sneh Patel alone with founding Delfino AI in 2023. GetLatka and FounderTrace also name Patel alone as founder. The company itself states 2021 as the founding year. | Differs across sources |
| Y Combinator record | The company’s YC page and jobs board listing sit under the original “be-golden” URL from the Summer 2022 batch, now displaying the Delfino AI name and description alongside the old Be Golden launch post. | YC data |
| SEC filings | No Form D or other EDGAR filing was found under Delfino AI, Delfino, or Be Golden in a full text and company name search of SEC EDGAR. | Public record |
| FDA, NIH, NSF, trials | No 510(k), PMA, registered clinical trial, NIH award or NSF award tied to Delfino AI was found. | Not found |
| Funding total | PitchBook lists $500K raised to date across a Jan 2022 accelerator investment and a Sep 2022 seed round of undisclosed size, plus a Jan 2024 accelerator entry for the Harvard program. GetLatka states: “We do not have funding information about Delfino AI yet.” | Differs across sources |
| Revenue | GetLatka estimates about $550K in 2025 revenue, calling it an estimate rather than a disclosed figure. | Estimate |
| Compliance posture | The company says it uses Vanta to help monitor and maintain HIPAA compliance. | Company-stated |
Read plainly: there is no dispute that a small San Francisco company now called Delfino AI automates payor phone calls for provider offices, was backed by Y Combinator, and has some paying revenue by 2025. What is unsettled, and unresolved by any government record, is when the company as it exists today began and whether it had one founder or two.
What to watch
- Whether Delfino AI or an affiliated entity files a Form D, which would be the first hard number on outside capital raised.
- Named customers. Neither the company website nor any source found here names a provider group, health system or payor using the platform.
- Whether Kimberly McManus is still active at the company; no source found here places her at Delfino AI after the Be Golden era, though the Harvard accelerator’s team page still lists her name under Delfino AI.
- Confirmation, one way or the other, of the founding date and founder count from a source independent of both the company and the Harvard accelerator.
In their words
“I (Sneh) am a PharmD and the CEO; Kimberly has a PhD in biology and is the CTO.”
Sneh Patel, Launch HN: Be Golden (YC S22), Aug 30, 2022 · Independent
“Kimberly’s expertise in consumer health comes from leading a data science team at 23andMe.”
Y Combinator company profile, accessed Sep 2026 · Company profile
“Our founders have a PharmD + MBA from Harvard and a PhD from Stanford and led teams at 23andMe and McKinsey.”
Kimberly McManus profile, BEAMSTART, 2023 · Independent
“Our AI-powered platform can navigate IVRs, wait on hold and have a conversation with a live person.”
Delfino AI website, accessed Sep 2026 · Company
“Sneh Patel, a Harvard Business School graduate, launched the company in 2023.”
Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Accelerator, 2024 cohort announcement, Mar 12, 2024 · Independent
“Delfino AI was founded in 2023 by Harvard Business School graduate Sneh Patel.”
Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Accelerator, team page · Differs from company
“Delfino AI generated an estimated $550K in annual revenue in 2025.”
GetLatka company profile, Aug 2026 · Estimate
“We do not have funding information about Delfino AI yet.”
GetLatka company profile, Aug 2026 · Not found
Related companies
Sources
- CompanyDelfino AI website, home page
- CompanyDelfino AI company profile
- CompanyDelfino AI company page
- IndependentLaunch HN: Be Golden (YC S22), Measure and manage your inflammation levels
- IndependentKimberly McManus, Co-founder of Be Golden, professional profile
- IndependentDelfino AI 2026 Company Profile: Valuation, Funding & Investors
- IndependentHow Delfino AI hit $550K revenue with a 5 person team in 2025
- IndependentDelfino AI Founder Genealogy
- IndependentAnnouncing 2024 Accelerator Cohort
- IndependentHarvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Accelerator, Teams page
- Public recordSEC EDGAR full text search and company search for Delfino AI, Delfino, and Be Golden
- Public recordFDA, NIH RePORTER, NSF Award Search, and ClinicalTrials.gov searches for Delfino AI
Profile researched and written by Healthcare Discovery. Last updated September 29, 2026.
