Egyptian Entrepreneur Hashem Abdou On Securing US$4.6 Million For His New York-Based Healthtech Startup Oasys Health

New York-based Oasys Health has raised US$4.6 million to advance its artificial intelligence (AI)-native operating system for behavioral health, with the venture capital investment including a $4 million seed round led by New York-based Pathlight Ventures, with participation from San Francisco-based Twine Ventures and Oakland-based Better Ventures, alongside $600,000 in pre-seed funding from San Francisco-based 1984 Ventures. 

Founded by Hashem Abdou, Raffay Rana, and Dawit Fasika in New York in 2024, Oasys is building an AI-native operating system designed to support more continuous, data-informed mental health care. The platform automates core clinical and administrative workflows while integrating real-time physiological data from wearables, with the aim of reducing operational burden on providers and improving clinical insight. 

Oasys is set to use the new capital to deepen its platform capabilities, expand integrations with third-party health technologies, grow its engineering and data science teams, and extend partnerships with health clinics, behavioral health centers, managed service organizations, and universities investing in campus mental health services. The company is also preparing to introduce an outcomes measurement framework aimed at helping clinicians track patient progress over time. 

Speaking to Inc. Arabia, Abdou, co-founder and CEO of Oasys, said that the thinking behind Oasys took shape well before the company was formally established. “Two of our three founders—myself and Raffay—were raised by psychologists, which gave us a front-row seat to the challenges therapists face daily," Abdou, an Egyptian expat living in New York, said. "We watched our parents spend countless hours on paperwork that could have been spent on patient care. That experience shaped our understanding of the problem we set out to solve."

The co-founders thus had insight into the everyday pressures that therapists face. “We all recognized a fundamental disconnect in mental health care: every other area of medicine has embraced data, automation, and continuous monitoring, but mental health remains largely analog," Abdou pointed out. "For decades, therapy has been a subjective, session-based practice built on intuition and recall rather than measurable evidence, despite existing technology to track heart rate, sleep, and activity continuously. We founded Oasys to close that gap and create a world where physiological data unlocks the full potential of therapy and catalyzes better health outcomes.”  

To translate that foundation into a practical solution, Abdou and his team focused on reducing friction in clinicians’ day-to-day work while enabling more informed care decisions. The company was thus developed to “unify practice management, clinical decision support, and physiological data into a single intelligent platform that helps clinicians save 10+ hours each week on administrative tasks, while transforming fragmented notes and wearable data into actionable insights that inform care and enable proactive interventions.” 

As such, today, Oasys automates workflows such as documentation, scribing, billing, scheduling, and insurance reimbursements, while securely integrating data from wearables and health applications covering sleep, activity, heart rate, glucose, and menstruation. By combining clinical notes with continuous physiological signals, Oasys aims to give providers a more complete, longitudinal view of patient progress, while also supporting eligibility for remote patient monitoring reimbursement. 

In addition to his background as a student of biomedical engineering and computer science, Abdou also pointed to his experience working at fintechs in Egypt as shaping how he approaches building companies in complex, highly regulated sectors. “Building in Egypt forces you to develop a high tolerance for ambiguity, resource constraints, and regulatory complexity early on," Abdou said. "You learn to be scrappy, relationship-driven, and resilient. Those instincts translated directly to building Oasys in the US healthcare sector, where progress is slow, trust is earned, and systems are deeply entrenched." 

Building on that perspective, Abdou drew parallels between operating in Egypt’s fintech ecosystem and navigating the US healthcare landscape. “In Egypt's fintech ecosystem, where I worked at companies like Khazna and Klivvr, you operate in an environment where infrastructure may be missing, regulations are evolving, and adoption requires significant education and trust-building," he said. "Healthcare in the US shares many of these dynamics: legacy systems, complex regulations, skeptical adoption curves, and the need to prove value quickly. However, there were critical differences I had to learn. In Egypt, you're often building the entire stack from scratch, because the infrastructure doesn't exist yet. In the US healthcare system, the challenge is different—you're navigating deeply embedded systems, established workflows, and strict compliance frameworks like the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The regulatory environment in US healthcare requires you to design for compliance from day one rather than adapting as regulations emerge.” 

“Another major difference is the expectations around data security and privacy," Abdou continued. "While these matter everywhere, the stakes in US healthcare are especially high. From day one, we built Oasys to meet the highest HIPAA and security standards, with encrypted data, granular access controls, and full audit trails. This wasn't an afterthought; it was foundational to our architecture." Such a framework has led Oasys to currently work with more than 25 health clinics across the US, supporting hundreds of providers and thousands of patients. It reports stronger patient engagement, more consistent symptom tracking, fewer claim denials, and faster reimbursement cycles tied to improved documentation accuracy.  

The Oasys founding team, from left to right: Dawit Fasika, Hashem Abdou, and Raffay Rana.

That traction, Abdou noted, played a key role in securing investor backing for Oasys. “We had paying customers, active pilots, and clear signals around where value was being created," he said. "Clinics were onboarding in 48 hours, providers were consistently reporting 10+ hours of weekly time savings, and our integrations with wearables like Apple Watch and Oura Ring demonstrated that the market was ready for this level of data integration. We weren't pitching a vision; we were demonstrating our ability to solve real problems." Abdou also noted that investor conviction was shaped by the founders’ combined personal connection to mental health care and their technical backgrounds, which helped establish early credibility at the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and clinical practice. “Investors saw that we understood the human side of mental health care, and were deeply committed to making a measurable impact,” he said. 

Abdou also pointed to the company’s vision for building a data moat for mental health as a meaningful signal to investors. “Investors understood that as we collect more therapist-labeled data tied to real outcomes, our models improve, our clinical insights deepen, and we become increasingly difficult to displace," he explained. "Unlike legacy systems that were built for billing, Oasys was designed from the ground up as an AI-native platform that gets smarter over time. That compounding advantage, paired with the network effects of our growing partner ecosystem, created a defensible long-term position.” 

Beyond capital, Abdou emphasized the strategic role that the company's investors will play in supporting Oasys as it scales. “Pathlight Ventures, our lead investor, has deep expertise in healthcare infrastructure and enterprise software," he said. "They're operator-focused and understand the challenges of selling into complex, regulated markets. Twine Ventures and Better Ventures bring valuable networks in mental health, which are critical as we expand our partnerships with clinics, managed service organizations, and universities. 1984 Ventures, our pre-seed lead, has been with us since day one and continues to provide strategic guidance on growth and market positioning. Together, they're helping us scale rapidly in line with our mission to transform mental health care into a data-driven, evidence-based discipline.” 

Looking to the future, Abdou pointed to a broader set of technological and behavioral shifts, including AI and wearables, that are redefining how mental health care is delivered and evaluated. “When it comes to AI, continuous health data from wearables, and shifting patient expectations, all are converging to reshape behavioral health," he said. "Each force is powerful, but I believe continuous health data from wearables will have the most lasting impact on how care is delivered. Why? Because AI is ultimately a tool that amplifies human decision-making. It doesn't replace the therapeutic relationship. Patient expectations are shifting, and people are demanding more personalized, proactive care, but expectations alone don't change systems; they create pressure for better infrastructure.” 

“Wearables, on the other hand, represent a fundamental shift in what's possible," Abdou continued. "For the first time in history, we have continuous, objective, real-world data about patient sleep quality, activity levels, heart rate variability, and more. This data doesn't rely on recall or self-report; it's measurable, longitudinal, and directly tied to mental health outcomes. Wearables turn mental health care from a once-a-week, 45-minute snapshot into a continuous, data-driven journey. They allow clinicians to see early warning signs of relapse, track the impact of interventions in real time, and personalize treatment based on objective evidence. As wearable adoption becomes ubiquitous, this will fundamentally redefine what it means to 'treat' mental health.” 

In terms of what the next three to five years will look like for Oasys, Abdou said that, for him, success will be defined by more than just expansion metrics. “Success means we've evolved into the data backbone for mental health care, connecting insights across practices, payers, and outcomes to power more personalized, predictive, and preventive treatment at scale," he said. "It means clinicians trust Oasys as the operating system they rely on daily to deliver better care, patients experience measurable improvements in their well-being, and mental health is treated with the same clinical rigor and precision as physical health.” 

Abdou added that the implications of that vision point toward how clinical practice could evolve as these capabilities become more widely adopted. “On a day-to-day level, this reshapes how therapy is practiced in two ways," he explained. "First, mental health care becomes continuous rather than episodic. Today, therapists see patients for 45-60 minutes and rely on recall and intuition to assess progress between sessions. With Oasys, clinicians have real-time visibility into their patients' sleep, activity, mood, and physiological patterns through integrations with wearables and health apps. This transforms therapy from a reactive, session-based model to a proactive, continuous care model where clinicians can intervene earlier and tailor treatment to each individual's needs. Second, mental health outcomes become measurable and transparent. We're launching a robust outcomes measurement framework this year that will allow clinicians to track patient progress over time and prove therapy effectiveness. This shifts mental health from a subjective, faith-based practice to an evidence-based discipline where improvements can be quantified, communicated, and optimized.” 

Reflecting on his own entrepreneurial trajectory, Abdou shared advice for other founders entering the mental health technology space. “I'd advise founders entering the mental health technology space to focus on building for clinicians, not just consumers," he said. "Spend real time with therapists and clinics so you can understand their workflows, their pain points, and the trade-offs they make every day. Oasys was built alongside therapists and clinics from the beginning. That's why we're able to save clinicians 10+ hours each week and why our platform actually fits into their daily practice. The founders who succeed in this space are the ones who recognize that mental health isn't just a consumer wellness problem—it's a clinical infrastructure problem. Focus on solving real clinical problems: documentation, billing, data fragmentation, and uncovering actionable insights. Build tools that make clinicians' work more effective and less burdensome. When you do that, better care and better outcomes follow."  

Pictured in the lead image is Oasys Health co-founder and CEO Hashem Abdou. All images courtesy Oasys Health.