Heidi cuts headcount by 18%, as two cofounders depart, just weeks after banking $475 million -

Melbourne AI health unicorn Heidi is cutting about 18% of its global workforce, and cofounders Waleed Mussa and Yu Liu also departing, just six weeks after the AI clinical notes scribe announcied a $475 million funding package.

The restructure was revealed to staff by cofounder and CEO Dr Thomas Kelly on Wednesday, just as Canva announced a restructure affecting 22% of its workforce, around 1270 staff.

“In the last few weeks, we reflected carefully on how we’re structured, and we weren’t putting our investment into the right teams and markets to make the most of our continuing growth,” Kelly said on LinkedIn today, revealing the cuts.

“It’s painful, but it’s what we need to do now to continue growing quickly and deliver on our plans for next year.”

Kelly told employees the business was restructuring despite rapid growth, adding that the changes followed a detailed review of Heidi’s priorities and where to direct its people and investment.

“That means bringing more customer support into product, bringing R&D together in one roadmap and giving our new product businesses clearer ownership and dedicated teams,” he wrote.

“We are investing in expanding our products, markets and team, and now support three million patient interactions every week.”

In September, Heidi raised US$100m (A$140m) in a Series C led by Blackbird, at a A$1.26 billion valuation, less than a fortnight after the Melbourne clinical notes taker was named Scaleup of the Year and AI Gamechanger at the Startup Daily awards.

General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund also led the separate US$240 million (A$335m) growth investment – a debt facility for customer acquisition.

In a note to staff following Wednesday’s all-hands, Kelly apologised to departing employees and accepted responsibility for the decisions behind the cuts. The number of employees leaving or from where was not outlined, but Heidi has more than 600 staff, meaning at least 108 roles will go.

“To those who are affected, I’m truly sorry for the impact this will have on you, your families and your teammates,” he wrote.

“You’ve put your talent, time and belief into Heidi, and as a leadership team, we take responsibility for the decisions that have brought us here.”

Cofounders depart

The restructure comes as two of Heidi’s three cofounders also prepare to leave the scaleup they helped build from its early days as Oscer.

Kelly shared the “sad news” publicly on Wednesday, via another LinkedIn post, saying they were leaving for different reasons.

“Waleed and Yu built Heidi with me, and it’s going to be really hard for all of us to continue without them,” he wrote.

Mussa is taking time with his family after what Kelly described as “so many late nights and weeks away”. He will stay for the next couple of weeks to finish outstanding work from the fundraise and hand over partnerships.

Liu will move into an advisory role focused on models and hardware through the end of March 2027.

The Heidi CEO traced his partnership with Mussa to 2015, when Mussa hired him at medical entrance exam preparation business Fraser’s GAMSAT. Mussa backed Oscer within Fraser’s in 2019.

Kelly said departing staff would receive severance and benefits packages exceeding statutory requirements in every country, adding that Heidi would outline its new structure and priorities the following week, followed by meetings for individual functions and regions.

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