Ashvin AI promises holistic tech solutions to challenged DME industry

BOSTON and SAN FRANCISCO – Ashvin AI co-founder Mathew Mammen is leveraging decades of experience in DME and health tech to tackle one of the industry’s biggest challenges: growing demand but shrinking margins. 

Mammen owned durable medical equipment (DME) and sleep lab companies for 14 years. He later served as CEO of Prochant, a revenue cycle management solution for DME, home infusion and home health companies, where he remains executive chairman. He also founded Somnoware, a sleep lab management software company, which was sold to Resmed. 

Now, Mammen – along with co-founders Nagarjuna Venna (chairman), Matt Cherian (chief product officer) and Sebastien Boyer (chief technology officer) – is positioning Ashvin AI as a platform that it says takes a more holistic approach to applying artificial intelligence (AI) to the financial and operational needs of DME companies. 

“I’ve been able to see (through my experience) that DMEs need a fundamentally different solution for the next phase,” Mammen said. “Demand is growing, but the profit pool is decreasing. DME needs a solution that doesn't look at operations in silos but touches everything from end to end.” 

Ashvin AI closed on a seed round earlier this year – “It was at the higher end for this industry,” Cherian said – and officially launched in October. Prior to launching, four providers – Bellevue Healthcare, CareLinc, Lehan’s and Hometown Healthcare – had signed on as "design partners” in 2024 and became paying customers in January 2025. 

Building a team beyond DME 

While his muscle memory in DME is very much a part of Ashvin AI’s framework, Mammen says he has brought in people “who are way smarter than me” and “who have done bigger, better things that are ahead of the DME field.” 

Venna, for example, co-founded BitSight Technologies, which offers third-party risk management solutions, and lectures at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Cherian worked with Venna at BitSight, where he helped the company grow from $300,000 to $110 million in revenue over an eight-year span. Its most recent funding round valued it at $2.4 billion. 

“DME is an industry that’s facing all these different headwinds – whether it’s competitive bidding or people shortages – and the current iteration of AI technology is almost the perfect solution for this problem,” Cherian said. “It’s an industry full of paper documentation and people sifting through documentation and just doing mundane work, when they could be spending their time on relationships with patients and referral sources. 

“Everyone knows about ChatGPT, but how do we bring this technology to real problems in the real economy that have a real impact on patients,” he said. “It’s that confluence that drew me in.” 

Redefining automation: From tools to outcomes 

This approach, Cherian says, has resulted in a solution that doesn’t offer tools for a provider to use but a software that does the work itself, leveraging AI. Take intake, a common area where automation is trailblazing a new path. 

“Software is sold and it's incumbent on the provider to pay for it and use it,” he said. “We deliver on outcomes. When you think about intake, you need a sales order, so you can deliver equipment. That’s exactly what we do, using AI, to generate a sales order; not give them software to generate the sales order. We’re responsible for doing the work and delivering on outcomes. And, we only get paid for sales orders we create, which means Ashvin only makes money when providers make money.” 

Looking ahead 

As Ashvin AI continues to build out its solution, Mammen sees a future where AI bots don’t have to ask a human about insurance and benefit-related questions – they will provide that information unprompted. 

“Providers will be able to make real-time financial decisions with absolute certainty,” he said. “And they’ll be able to do that every step of the way from referral to cash.” 

There’s one caveat, Mammen says: “We need to keep the DME in control of the front door to any platform that can disconnect them from their referral source. It’s very important the decision is owned by them.”