Vrishank Saini
| Vrishank Saini | |
| Nationality | Canadian |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Entrepreneur, software developer |
| Known for | Co-founder of SimCare AI |
| Education | University of Chicago (attended; did not graduate) |
Vrishank Saini is a Canadian entrepreneur and co-founder of SimCare AI, a healthcare training platform that uses artificial intelligence-powered avatars to help train clinicians, counselors, social workers, and other healthcare professionals. The company was part of the Y Combinator Summer 2024 batch and is based in San Francisco.[1]
Career
Saini enrolled as a pre-med neuroscience student at the University of Chicago. After failing a clinical communication exam, he sought tutoring resources but found them prohibitively expensive, with packages costing as much as $9,000. This experience motivated him to build his own training tool. Together with fellow student Tigran Bdoyan, Saini developed an AI-powered platform that allowed students to practice clinical skills with simulated patients.[2] Both Saini and Bdoyan subsequently dropped out of the University of Chicago to pursue the startup full-time.
Prior to SimCare, Saini had built a healthcare education app during high school that reportedly accumulated over 120,000 downloads within six months.
SimCare AI provides an all-in-one solution for training clinical skills across healthcare and behavioral health disciplines. The platform features AI avatars that users can speak with to practice counseling and clinical communication, automated feedback systems, and site placement tools designed to help users demonstrate their skills and find employment. As of early 2025, the platform offered more than 500 avatars and had been used by over 15,000 students.[3] The company's users include trainees in counseling, social work, medicine, and nursing.
Saini and Bdoyan were initially rejected by the University of Chicago's own accelerator program before being accepted into Y Combinator's Summer 2024 batch, which provided $500,000 in funding. In February 2025, SimCare AI announced it had raised $2 million in seed funding, with the round led by Y Combinator and Drive Capital.[2]
In January 2026, Marshall University's Department of Counseling announced a pilot program using SimCare's AI software in its counseling training curriculum.
References
- ↑ "SimCare – Y Combinator". 'Y Combinator}'. Retrieved 2026-03-18.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Meet The University Dropouts Using AI To Train Clinicians". 'Forbes}'. Retrieved 2026-03-18.
- ↑ "SimCare – AI Client simulations for better counselor training". 'SimCare}'. Retrieved 2026-03-18.