Medical devices & diagnostics · Orthopedic surgical planning
Mango Medical
AI agents that turn a patient’s CT scan and X-rays into a surgeon-ready orthopedic surgical plan in seconds instead of days, starting with shoulder replacement. The company is in Y Combinator’s Winter 2026 batch and says it is pursuing FDA 510(k) clearance.
The pitch, in one sentence
Mango Medical builds AI agents that take a patient’s CT scan and X-rays and plan which implant size and surgical approach to use. In its Y Combinator launch post, co-founders Adrian Kilian and Jorge Padilla Perez put it directly: “Mango Medical builds AI Agents that take CT scans and X-Rays and plan which implant sizes and approach works.”
The company says orthopedic implant companies can send a CT scan through its API and get back a full surgical plan within seconds, starting with shoulder replacement surgeries, instead of waiting on a specialized planning engineering team for multiple business days.
The problem it is chasing
Mango Medical’s own account, in its launch post, sizes the market this way: roughly 30 million orthopedic surgeries happen every year and all of them use some form of medical imaging beforehand. About 10 million are joint replacements that currently receive planning over two to five business days, which the company says limits the use of surgical robots and 3D printed guides and adds delay between when a surgeon sees a patient and when a plan can be discussed with them.
Another 15 million, by the company’s count, are acute fractures: time-sensitive, high-complexity cases that use the same imaging but lack planning workflows, so surgeons work out the approach in the operating room itself. The company says this is the number one request it has heard from surgeons, for patient-specific plans on these complex cases.
Mango Medical’s LinkedIn page frames the stakes with a public-health statistic rather than a market one, citing a study that estimates six million trauma deaths a year worldwide, more than all infectious disease deaths combined, and tens of millions more permanently or temporarily injured.
Founders and an earlier German chapter
Adrian Kilian is Mango Medical’s CEO. The company’s launch post describes him as a dentist and maxillofacial surgery researcher and a Stanford GSB Ignite alumnus, and adds, almost as an aside, that he was formerly a voice actor. Jorge Padilla Perez is CTO. The same post credits him with contributing to the original U-NET paper, a widely cited medical image segmentation method, and with research collaborations spanning ETH Zurich, Stanford, the University of Augsburg and TU Munich.
Before the Y Combinator run, the same two founders, plus a third, Julien Schmidt, appear in an independent company database as the team behind a company also called Mango Medical, based in Freising, Germany, founded in 2020, and described as a provider of an AI-based medical device for fracture surgeries. A separate accelerator funding listing for a Mango Medical, matching that description, pitches the product as an “Invisalign” for complex bone fracture surgeries, offering “user-friendly digital planning in less than three minutes.”
Mango Medical’s public legal notice, as described by an independent research database, names Mango Medical GmbH in Munich, tied to an address shared with Brainamics GmbH, and identifies the GmbH as represented by a US parent, Mango Medical Inc., registered in Wilmington, Delaware. That is consistent with a German origin story that later folded into an American startup entity, though none of the sources found lay out the corporate history year by year.
San Francisco and the YC batch
In early March 2026, Jorge Padilla Perez posted on LinkedIn that the company was “Officially taking Mango Medical to San Francisco for the Y Combinator W26 batch.” He called it “the most competitive batch of all time to get into in YCombinators history” and added, “Not only that, but we are the only company pursuing FDA approval for a Medtech product in the batch.” The post thanked a list of advisors and YC partners, including Y Combinator’s Garry Tan, for recommending the company.
Y Combinator’s own company page lists Mango Medical as active in its Winter 2026 batch, with the one-line description “Foundation models for planning orthopedic surgery,” and states the company has an “8-figure LOI from a top orthopedic company” and is “pursuing FDA 510(k) clearance.” The implant company behind that letter of intent is not named in any source found.
What is proven, and what is still claimed
| Evidence | What the record shows | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| FDA clearance | No 510(k) or PMA record found for Mango Medical as of September 2026. The company’s own YC profile says it is “pursuing FDA 510(k) clearance,” and Jorge Padilla Perez’s LinkedIn post says the software is investigational until that clearance is granted. | Not found |
| 8-figure LOI | Y Combinator’s company page states an “8-figure LOI from a top orthopedic company.” A letter of intent is not a signed contract or revenue, and the partner is not named anywhere found. | Company-stated |
| Total funding | A PitchBook snippet cited by an independent research database reports $500,000 raised, tied to Y Combinator and accelerator programs including Plug and Play Tech Center and Xpreneurs. Separate secondary funding trackers, cited by the same database, report $8.0 million to $8.3 million in total funding for the YC W26 batch listing. The two figures differ by more than an order of magnitude and neither could be verified against a primary filing. | Differs across sources |
| SEC Form D | A search of SEC EDGAR for company filings under the name Mango Medical returned no Form D notice. | Not found |
| Peer-reviewed publications | No peer-reviewed paper naming Mango Medical or its founders was found in a PubMed search tied to this profile. | Not found |
| Earlier German entity | An independent company database lists a Freising, Germany, company also named Mango Medical, founded 2020 by Adrian Kilian, Jorge Padilla Perez and Julien Schmidt, described as an AI-based device for fracture surgeries, with $500,000 raised in one round. | Independent database |
| CTO research background | Company launch post credits Jorge Padilla Perez with contributing to the original U-NET paper and with research collaborations at ETH Zurich, Stanford, the University of Augsburg and TU Munich. No independent citation record was checked to confirm authorship. | Company-stated |
| Registered clinical trials | No clinical trial registration tied to Mango Medical or its planning software was found. | Not found |
Read plainly, Mango Medical has a clear pitch, a Y Combinator Winter 2026 seat, and two founders with imaging and surgical research backgrounds. What is not yet public is a completed FDA clearance, a named commercial partner behind its 8-figure LOI, a confirmed funding figure from a primary filing, or any peer-reviewed or clinical validation of the planning software itself.
What to watch
- Whether Mango Medical files for, and receives, FDA 510(k) clearance for a surgical planning device.
- Whether the orthopedic implant company behind the “8-figure LOI” is ever named, and whether the letter converts into a signed agreement.
- A Form D or other primary filing that would settle whether total funding is closer to $500,000 or to $8 million.
- Any peer-reviewed or independently reported accuracy data comparing Mango Medical’s plans to surgeon-generated plans.
In their words
“Mango Medical builds AI Agents that take CT scans and X-Rays and plan which implant sizes and approach works.”
Adrian Kilian and Jorge Padilla Perez, co-founders, Y Combinator launch post, 2026 · Company release
“Instead of waiting for specialized planning engineering teams to turn-around a plan over multiple business days, orthopedic implant companies work with our APIs to submit the CT scan of a patient and receive a full surgical plan within seconds, starting with shoulder replacement surgeries.”
Y Combinator launch post, 2026 · Company release
“When planning can be done instantaneously, all surgeries can be planned in time.”
Y Combinator launch post, 2026 · Company release
“We build AI for orthopedic surgeons to plan their surgeries.”
Mango Medical company page, LinkedIn · Company-stated
“Officially taking Mango Medical to San Francisco for the Y Combinator W26 batch. Let’s build something surgeons want!”
Jorge Padilla Pérez, co-founder and CTO, LinkedIn, March 3, 2026 · Founder post
“Not only that, but we are the only company pursuing FDA approval for a Medtech product in the batch.”
Jorge Padilla Pérez, co-founder and CTO, LinkedIn, March 3, 2026 · Founder post
“At Mango Medical, we use AI and cutting-edge technology to revolutionize bone fracture treatment, providing user-friendly digital planning in less than three minutes, thereby enhancing surgical accuracy.”
Company description, accelerator funding listing · Company-stated
“8-figure LOI from a top orthopedic company. Pursuing FDA 510(k) clearance.”
Mango Medical company profile, Y Combinator · Company-stated
Related companies
Sources
- CompanyMango Medical company profile
- CompanyLaunch YC: Mango Medical, Taking the guesswork out of orthopedic surgeries with agentic planning
- CompanyMango Medical company page
- Founder postOfficially taking Mango Medical to San Francisco for the Y Combinator W26 batch
- Independent databaseMango Medical company profile
- Independent databaseMango Medical, YC Company Profile
- Independent databaseMango Medical company research profile, citing PitchBook, Extruct AI and The VC Corner
- Independent databaseMango Medical accelerator funding listing
- Personal accountAdrian Kilian posts
- Public recordSEC EDGAR company search for Mango Medical, Form D filings
- Public recordFDA 510(k) database search for Mango Medical
- Public recordPubMed search for Mango Medical
Profile researched and written by Healthcare Discovery. Last updated September 29, 2026.
