# Kelvin Chan

> Kelvin Chan is a co-founder of Nirvana, a New York healthtech company that uses machine learning and data science to turn insurance verification and cost estimation into something providers and patients can trust. He leads product and serves as president. A Columbia-trained neuroscientist who spent years building enterprise data software at Enigma, Chan started Nirvana in 2019 after a frustrating personal experience trying to find out whether his insurance would cover a therapist. The company has raised $24.2M in Series A funding led by Northzone and now powers eligibility checks across digital health platforms and provider offices nationwide.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & President at Nirvana
- **Organizations:** Nirvana, Enigma, IQVIA
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** BA, Neuroscience, Columbia University
- **Known for:** Co-founded Nirvana in 2019, a healthtech company that has raised $39.4M in total funding, Led the product direction that turned a free insurance calculator into the company's core offering, Helped raise a $24.2M Series A led by Northzone in 2024

## Career timeline

- **2013** — Associate Consultant at IQVIA, leading projects in financial diligence and market access for drugs in health sciences
- **2015** — Joined Enigma, holding roles from Senior Associate to Director of Product, building enterprise software powered by data science and machine learning for fintech, pharma, and healthcare
- **2018** — A frustrating 48-minute insurance verification call while seeking a therapist sparks the idea for Nirvana
- **2019** — Co-founded Nirvana with Akshay Venkitasubramanian and Urvish Parikh; leads product and serves as president
- **2022** — Nirvana raises over $11M to help behavioral health providers simplify insurance and operations
- **2024** — Nirvana raises $24.2M Series A led by Northzone to expand AI-powered insurance verification

## Achievements

- Co-founded Nirvana in 2019, a healthtech company that has raised $39.4M in total funding
- Led the product direction that turned a free insurance calculator into the company's core offering
- Helped raise a $24.2M Series A led by Northzone in 2024
- Built and scaled data-science-powered enterprise software at Enigma across fintech, pharma, and healthcare
- Earned a spot in Nobel laureate Eric Kandel's neuroscience lab at Columbia through persistence

## Latest updates

- **2024-09** — Nirvana closed a $24.2M Series A led by Northzone to scale AI-powered insurance verification.
- **2025-01** — Chan appeared on the Venture Everywhere podcast with Jenny Fielding to discuss Nirvana's founding story and his philosophy of 'narrow excellence.'

## Links

- Website: https://meetnirvana.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kelvin-k-chan

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/kelvin-chan
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-16