Alfie

Alfie Health operated as a virtual obesity management clinic, founded in 2022 by Alexander Singh, Rohit Rustagi, and Dr. Hasan Syed. The founders' paths converged through their undergraduate thesis, where Dr. Syed was an advisor. Singh, with a background in AI, biomedical engineering, and experience at the FDA, was intrigued by new anti-obesity medications during the pandemic. This led him to reconnect with Rustagi, who was then bound for Stanford Medical School and had a deep academic history in biomedical engineering and bioethics. Both were personally motivated by their families' experiences with obesity.

The company's core offering was the ObesityRx™ platform, a proprietary AI-driven clinical decision support tool. This technology was designed to analyze a patient's comprehensive medical history, lab data, and patient-reported outcomes to create a personalized metabolic profile. Based on this profile, the platform recommended a tailored combination of precision medicine—which did not always prioritize GLP-1s—and behavioral modifications like changes in nutrition, exercise, and sleep. The treatment plans were reviewed by Alfie's medical team, and patients received ongoing support through telehealth appointments with providers and health coaches.

Alfie Health's business model focused on partnering with healthcare organizations, such as cardiology groups and large self-funded employers, to manage their patients' and employees' weight loss needs. It also contracted with payers on a fee-for-service basis and offered a direct-to-consumer option for a monthly fee. The company secured $2.1 million in seed funding from investors including Y Combinator and Nina Capital. In June 2024, Alfie Health was acquired by Knownwell, a weight-inclusive primary care and metabolic health company. Following the acquisition, Alfie's standalone platform was shut down as its technology was integrated into Knownwell's care model to enhance clinical decision support and scale its services. Alexander Singh joined the Knownwell team as Head of Analytics.

Keywords: obesity management, AI clinical support, telehealth, precision medicine, metabolic health, virtual clinic, health-tech, personalized medicine, behavioral change, medical AI