Pomegra
San Francisco-based Hike Medical has secured $22.5 million in combined seed and Series A funding to automate medical device workflows for orthotics, prosthetics, and durable equipment from physician referral to patient delivery.
Key Takeaways
- Saga Ventures led the round; Indicator Ventures, Fifth Down Capital, RiverPark Ventures, and strategic investor Orthofeet also participated.
- Hike's 3D printing facility in Peoria, Illinois has cut custom insole remake rates from 1-in-15 to 1-in-400.
- New capital funds engineering and sales hiring in San Francisco and manufacturing expansion in Peoria.
Lead
Hike Medical announced on August 25, 2026 that it had closed $22.5 million across a seed and Series A round, with Saga Ventures leading. The San Francisco startup, founded in 2022, targets a fragmented, paper-heavy supply chain that spans orthotics and prosthetics (O&P), podiatry, and durable medical equipment (DME) - sectors where patients routinely wait weeks for devices and clinical errors trigger costly remakes.
What Does Hike Medical Actually Do?
The platform connects three previously disconnected layers of the device-delivery process. Hike Intelligence uses AI agents to process incoming referrals and automate prior authorizations and insurance payment workflows. Hike Clinical gives clinicians a single point-of-care tool to scan, document, and order devices. A third component - Hike's own 3D printing laboratory in Peoria, Illinois - fabricates custom orthotics with a turnaround of approximately five business days.
The company started by targeting custom insoles for diabetic patients, a narrow but measurable entry point. That focus produced a concrete benchmark: remake rates on custom insoles dropped from 1 in 15 to 1 in 400 under Hike's process. CEO Aadi Bhanti, who grew up in a family of O&P clinicians spanning three generations, used that track record to justify expanding into the broader device-care market.
Who Backed the Round?
Saga Ventures led, with Max Altman directing the investment. Alongside the institutional backers - Indicator Ventures, Fifth Down Capital, and RiverPark Ventures - the round included Orthofeet, a footwear and orthotic company that joined as both investor and commercial partner. Angel investors include Sam Blond, CEO of Monaco, and Jerod Mayo, former head coach of the New England Patriots.
Orthofeet's dual role as strategic investor and commercial partner is notable. It gives Hike an immediate distribution channel and a signal of product-market fit that pure financial investors cannot provide. Whether that partnership extends exclusivity terms or constrains Hike's ability to serve competing suppliers has not been disclosed.
Why Is This Market So Hard to Fix?
O&P and DME billing sits at an intersection of high clinical customization, strict Medicare and Medicaid documentation requirements, and a provider base dominated by small independent clinics with limited IT budgets. Insurance approvals alone can take days, and incomplete documentation is the single largest driver of claim denials in the category.
Existing practice management software in O&P is older and category-specific, designed around billing workflows rather than clinical or fabrication ones. Hike's bet is that integrating all three layers - authorization, point-of-care capture, and manufacturing - into one system removes the handoff errors that generate delays and remakes. That integration argument is familiar from broader healthcare IT, but O&P has resisted consolidation longer than most adjacent specialties.
What Does the Hiring Plan Signal?
Hike will deploy capital across engineering and sales in San Francisco and manufacturing capacity in Peoria, where it operates what it describes as the country's largest orthotic 3D print farm. The manufacturing investment is the less common choice. Most software-first health tech companies contract fabrication out; owning the print farm gives Hike direct quality control but adds operational complexity and capital intensity that software businesses typically avoid.
The addition of Jerry Tang as chief operating officer reinforces that bet. Tang was employee 30 at Flexport, rising to SVP of Global Operations at the logistics company - experience that maps directly to building physical fulfillment at scale rather than to clinical or billing software.
Competitive Context
The O&P software market has a handful of established vendors - none of which have moved aggressively into AI-driven authorization or in-house manufacturing. DME billing automation has attracted more venture attention, with several startups addressing the prior authorization problem alone. Hike's differentiation is the end-to-end claim: one platform from referral intake to fabricated device. The risk is execution depth. Running a 3D print farm, selling SaaS to small clinics, and processing insurance authorizations are three distinct operational challenges.
Valuation terms for the round were not disclosed.
Outlook
Hike enters its growth phase with a specific operational proof point - the remake rate reduction - and a capital structure that includes a commercial partner rather than just financial backers. The manufacturing-plus-software model sets it apart from pure-play health IT competitors but also raises the bar for what counts as a successful scaling quarter. Expansion into podiatry and broader DME categories will test whether the clinical and fabrication integrations that worked for custom insoles translate to a more heterogeneous product set.
