# Florian Otto

> Florian Otto is the co-founder and CEO of Cedar, a New York healthcare financial technology company that reworks how patients understand and pay their medical bills. A former physician trained in Germany, Otto moved from medicine into consulting at McKinsey, built a daily-deals business in Brazil that became Groupon Brazil, and ran commercial sales at ZocDoc before starting Cedar in 2016. He built the company around a simple frustration - a confusing hospital bill his fiancee received - and a bigger question: why can't healthcare billing feel as clear as buying from Amazon or Expedia? Cedar has since raised roughly $400M+ and works with hospitals and health systems across the United States.

- **Role:** Co-Founder and CEO at Cedar
- **Organizations:** Cedar, ZocDoc, Groupon Brazil, ClubeUrbano, McKinsey & Company, Forbes Business Council
- **Nationality:** German
- **Education:** M.D., D.D.S. and Ph.D., University of Freiburg, Germany
- **Known for:** Co-founded and scaled Cedar into a leading patient financial engagement platform working with hospitals and health systems across the U.S., Raised roughly $400M+ in venture funding across seed through Series D from investors including Founders Fund, Thrive Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Tiger Global, Reached a reported $3.2B valuation with Cedar's 2021 Series D

## Career timeline

- **~2009** — Completed M.D./D.D.S./Ph.D. at the University of Freiburg, Germany, and began his business career as a strategy consultant in McKinsey & Company's healthcare practice
- **~2010** — Founded ClubeUrbano, a daily-deals company in Brazil, which was acquired by Groupon
- **~2011** — Became CEO of Groupon Brazil, growing it into one of Groupon's top three international markets
- **2012** — Joined ZocDoc as VP of Sales, driving commercial adoption of the platform through 2015
- **2016** — Co-founded Cedar with Arel Lidow and became CEO
- **2020** — Cedar raised a $77M Series C led by Andreessen Horowitz
- **2021** — Cedar closed a $200M Series D led by Tiger Global, reaching a $3.2B valuation
- **2022** — Cedar raised an additional Series D round of $68.4M

## Achievements

- Co-founded and scaled Cedar into a leading patient financial engagement platform working with hospitals and health systems across the U.S.
- Raised roughly $400M+ in venture funding across seed through Series D from investors including Founders Fund, Thrive Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Tiger Global
- Reached a reported $3.2B valuation with Cedar's 2021 Series D
- Named a top 50 healthcare technology CEO for two consecutive years
- Built and sold ClubeUrbano to Groupon, then led Groupon Brazil to a top-three international market
- Member of the Forbes Business Council

## Latest updates

- **2026** — Otto has continued to push Cedar toward AI-driven, real-time personalization of billing, arguing that patients are becoming a larger and more consequential source of healthcare payment and that billing must adapt to each patient's needs in real time.

## Links

- Website: https://cedar.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/florianotto
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/CedarNY
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/CedarNY/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/florian-otto
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-17