OpenEvidence
Vertical AI (legal, health, finance) · https://www.openevidence.com
Verdict: Hold · Confidence: high · Reviewed 2026-10-15
OpenEvidence is a free, ad-supported clinical search product used, the company says, by more than 40% of U.S. physicians. It told CNBC it topped $100 million in annualized revenue and closed a $250 million round at a $12 billion valuation in January 2026. Usage is real; the valuation is far ahead of that revenue, and the product is given away while a deeper agent costs over 100 times a normal search.
Rubric
| Dimension | Score (1–5) | Notes & sources |
|---|---|---|
| Real customers & revenue quality Are there named paying customers, recurring revenue, and retention evidence? | 4/5 | OpenEvidence said it topped $100 million in annualized revenue. Its July 15, 2025 release said it is used across more than 10,000 hospitals and by more than 40% of U.S. physicians, with over 8,500,000 clinical consultations a month, up from about 358,000 in July 2024.
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| Unit economics Do gross margins survive inference/compute costs? Is pricing durable? | 2/5 | The clinician product is free and monetized with advertising. The company said each DeepConsult run requires over 100 times the compute and cost of a standard search, and it still offers DeepConsult free to verified U.S. clinicians. No gross margin was disclosed.
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| Moat Proprietary data, distribution, switching costs, or tech that is hard to copy? | 4/5 | Content deals with the AMA, NEJM, and JAMA, plus what the CEO called hundreds of millions of real-world clinical consultations, are harder to copy than a generic medical chatbot. OpenAI and Anthropic have launched healthcare products, which tests that moat.
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| Platform risk Could a model provider or incumbent ship this as a feature? (higher score = lower risk) | 3/5 | Answers depend on licensed journal content and on foundation models the company does not own. CNBC notes ChatGPT Health and Claude Healthcare as new competitors. Advertising keeps the product free, but journal partners can reprice access.
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| Team & execution Shipping cadence, leadership track record, stability. | 4/5 | Daniel Nadler previously sold Kensho to S&P Global for about $700 million. OpenEvidence raised a $210 million Series B at $3.5 billion in July 2025 and, the company told CNBC, a $250 million round at $12 billion in January 2026, while shipping DeepConsult.
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| Funding vs. traction Is capital raised justified by verifiable traction? | 2/5 | CNBC reported $700 million raised in less than a year and a $12 billion valuation against more than $100 million of annualized revenue. The July 2025 release alone was $210 million at $3.5 billion, after a $75 million Sequoia round at $1 billion.
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| Hype signals Demo-driven marketing, vague metrics, valuation outrunning evidence? (higher score = fewer red flags) | 2/5 | Physician usage and revenue are disclosed, but the valuation moved from $1 billion to $12 billion in about a year, and the July release calls the product the fastest-growing application for physicians in history. The free agent with 100x compute is a cost risk the valuation does not reflect.
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Listing source: https://www.openevidence.com. Revenue, users, and valuation figures appear only when publicly sourced; otherwise they are marked unknown.