# Daniel Friedman

> Daniel Friedman is the CEO and cofounder of Ethermed, a Philadelphia-based health technology company that uses AI and clinical reasoning to automate prior authorization for payers and providers. He founded the company in 2021 with engineer Michal Such after concluding that administrative friction in healthcare was a solvable software problem rather than a permanent cost of doing business. Under his leadership Ethermed raised an $8.5M Series A in 2026 (over $15M total), signed nine health-system customers, and now processes millions of authorizations a year, most of them fully automated in seconds.

- **Role:** CEO and Cofounder at Ethermed
- **Organizations:** Ethermed, Backtrace AI, Vidoni AR
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** Comparative politics, law and economics, Johns Hopkins University - Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Chinese and comparative politics, law and economics, Johns Hopkins University - Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies
- **Known for:** Founded and leads Ethermed, an AI prior-authorization platform serving nine health-system customers, Raised more than $15M in total funding, including an $8.5M Series A in 2026, Built a platform processing millions of prior authorizations a year, roughly 89% fully automated

## Career timeline

- **Earlier** — Cofounder and Director of Labs at Vidoni AR
- **Earlier** — CEO at Backtrace AI
- **2021** — Founded Ethermed in Philadelphia with cofounder Michal Such to automate prior authorization
- **2023** — Signed first major customer, MedPOINT Management, processing thousands of pre-authorizations per day
- **2026** — Raised $8.5M Series A led by Enfield Capital Partners and Blue Marlin Partners, bringing total funding past $15M
- **2026** — Launched Ethermed Online, a modern authorization workspace on the company's NextGen AI Platform

## Achievements

- Founded and leads Ethermed, an AI prior-authorization platform serving nine health-system customers
- Raised more than $15M in total funding, including an $8.5M Series A in 2026
- Built a platform processing millions of prior authorizations a year, roughly 89% fully automated
- Drove average authorization processing time to 3.9 seconds with a 91% first-pass completion rate
- Synchronized real-time policy coverage across 130+ payers
- Cut typical healthcare onboarding from 9-12 months to a 12-week window

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — Ethermed raised an $8.5M Series A led by Enfield Capital Partners and Blue Marlin Partners, bringing total funding past $15M.
- **2026-05** — Ethermed launched Ethermed Online, a modern authorization workspace with a 12-week onboarding path and 3.9-second average processing time.

## Links

- Website: https://ethermed.ai
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dfriedm/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/daniel-friedman
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-22