Why We Invested: Koda Health
Company: Koda Health
Founders: Tatiana Fofanova, Desh Mohan, Katelin Cherry
Stage: Series A
Vertical: Digital Health
Company Overview
Koda Health operates at the intersection of digital health, chronic disease management, and palliative care enablement. The company offers a technology-driven, human-supported platform that addresses critical gaps in care by engaging patients in proactive, upstream conversations. These conversations document patient goals and preferences, enabling more appropriate, goal-concordant care across the continuum.
Koda’s solution reduces unnecessary hospital admissions, increases hospice utilization, facilitates earlier care alignment, and accelerates transitions when patient needs change. Its value proposition aligns with the growing demand for value-based care solutions and Medicare Advantage compliance, capturing the interest of both payers and providers in advanced care planning (ACP) and serious illness infrastructure.
The company’s platform combines digital tools and personalized navigation. Patients access video-guided education, documentation, in-app notarization, and document sharing, while Koda’s patient navigation team provides longitudinal support for 12–24 months. This hybrid approach empowers patients and families to make informed decisions, while also screening for palliative and hospice needs. Ultimately, Koda enables health systems and payers to scale serious illness conversations, address care needs proactively, and drive cost savings through the delivery of appropriate care.
Why?
Making medical decisions in a crisis is overwhelming for patients, families, and providers. Too often, people haven’t had the chance to discuss their values, choose a trusted decision-maker, or write down their wishes. The result is care that doesn’t reflect what matters most, unnecessary hospitalizations, and added stress during already difficult times.
Advance Care Planning (ACP) is meant to prevent this, but traditional processes are confusing, paper-heavy, and inaccessible for many. That’s why Koda Health exists: to make planning easier, more compassionate, and accessible to everyone. By guiding patients step-by-step through thoughtful conversations and secure documentation, Koda helps ensure care aligns with each person’s value and gives families peace of mind knowing they’re honoring their loved one’s wishes.
What differentiates Koda in the market?
Koda Health stands out because it combines thoughtful technology with sustained human support to make advanced care planning truly actionable. Their solution includes:
A patient-facing app and portal (also embedded in MyChart) that guides people through complex medical decisions before a crisis, with clear education and secure tools for documentation and notarization so that plans are legally valid and ready when needed.
An EMR-integrated provider interface that helps clinicians identify patients, track ACP progress, and see the bigger picture across their entire patient population.
A tech-enabled care support platform for Koda’s patient advocates and licensed clinical social workers (LCSWs), who walk alongside patients and families for 12–24 months. This ongoing relationship ensures conversations continue, preferences are updated, and care stays aligned over time.
By blending digital access, provider visibility, and months of compassionate support, Koda goes far beyond traditional ACP tools. They don’t just create plans; they make sure those plans are understood, shared, and honored when it matters most.
Who is the team behind Koda?
Koda Health is led by a team of mission-driven clinicians and health-tech operators who bring both deep expertise and personal passion to serious-illness care. CEO Tatiana Fofanova, PhD, earned her doctorate in Translational Biology at Baylor College of Medicine, where she focused on treatments for incurable diseases, and has long worked with vulnerable populations, including refugee, unhoused, and elderly communities. She co-founded Koda alongside Desh Mohan, MD, a practicing hospitalist who serves as CMO, and Katelin Cherry, MBE, a product leader and designer with global experience developing medical technologies for low-resource settings, who serves as CTO. Together, the three met at the Texas Medical Center’s year-long Biodesign Fellowship, where they were challenged to solve critical gaps in health system workflows. They are joined by Taylor Huffman, MHA, who leads operations as COO after more than a decade scaling healthcare startups, and Anthony Comito, who brings extensive engineering expertise to build secure, scalable health technology. This mix of clinical insight, technical innovation, and operational execution enables Koda to reimagine how advance care planning is delivered at scale.