Seattle-based Avante, an enterprise AI platform for employee benefits teams, raised $30 million in a Series A funding round led by Frist Cressey Ventures. The round included new investors Sorenson Capital, Hearst Ventures and Morgan Stanley Next Level Fund, alongside existing investor FUSE.
The latest investment brought Avante’s total funding to $40 million.
Avante was co-founded by Rohan D’Souza, CEO, Dr. Carly Eckert and Kabir Shahani, who serves as executive chairman. The company develops AI-powered software that helps employers manage employee benefits programs, analyze spending, assess vendor performance and provide employees with personalized benefits guidance.
Its platform includes Ava, an AI assistant for benefits teams, and Carly, an employee-facing assistant that helps individuals understand their coverage and available benefits. The software brings together information from plan documents, contracts, claims and other benefits data to support administrative and strategic decisions.
Avante plans to use the Series A investment to expand internationally, develop additional AI agents for recurring benefits management tasks and strengthen its employee guidance capabilities.
On October 22, 2026, the company introduced Ava Agents in beta. The agents are designed to handle recurring activities such as reviewing vendor reports, identifying missing information and preparing communications for benefits teams to review.
According to Avante, its platform serves more than 70 customers and supports over 385,000 employees and family members. Its customers include Samsung Semiconductor, Real Chemistry, Zscaler and News Corp.
The financing followed a $10 million seed round in 2024 led by FUSE, with participation from Ascend Venture Capital, Highsage and strategic angel investors.
