01What it sells and who buys it
OpenEvidence is a clinical information service that helps physicians answer questions using medical literature. Its core use case is finding evidence during professional clinical work.
02How the business makes money
The platform is free for verified clinicians and funded through advertising. Physicians are the users while advertisers are the paying customers, so clinician adoption is not a paid-subscription count.
03Marketing and customer acquisition
OpenEvidence let physicians adopt freely before hospital-wide purchasing decisions.
- 01
Target physicians’ evidence search
SourceA free service targeted physicians’ evidence searches, putting immediate individual use ahead of a long hospital-wide buying process.
- 02
Combine peer referral with specialist content
SourceThe founder described adoption through physicians downloading the app and recommending it to colleagues. Individual clinicians could begin without waiting for a hospital-wide purchasing process. Medical-journal partnerships strengthen the content and trust needed for repeated professional use.
- 03
Financing the next stage
SourceA January 2026 Series D raised $250 million at a $12 billion valuation. Clinician adoption underpinned the financing, but investment proceeds are separate from advertising revenue.
How the growth mechanism works
- A physician asks for free
- Use answers with references
- Recommend it to colleagues
- Monetize a specialist audience
Users and payers are different. Physicians can adopt without procurement approval, while the specialist audience becomes an advertising asset. Journal partnerships strengthen content; usage still needs to be translated into advertising demand.
04Funding and expansion
A January 2026 Series D raised $250 million at a $12 billion valuation. Clinician adoption underpinned the financing, but investment proceeds are separate from advertising revenue.
More about the founding and key events
Daniel Nadler started OpenEvidence in 2022 to help physicians find medical information. The user and the payer play different roles: physicians can use the information service for free, while advertising provides revenue.
In an interview with Sequoia, Nadler described choosing individual physician adoption over waiting for hospital-wide purchasing. Physicians downloaded the app and recommended it to colleagues. Partnerships with medical journals strengthened the content. His account describes this distribution approach without establishing marketing spending across every period.
Forbes reported a $12 billion valuation in January 2026 and estimated Nadler’s wealth at $7.6 billion that year. He was about 39 at founding and 43 at that wealth estimate. He had previously founded and sold Kensho. His earlier entrepreneurial experience is part of the company’s starting context.