Onix Raises $5 Million to Launch AI Health Expert Library

Montréal-based startup Onix has raised $5 million USD ($6.9 million CAD) in a pre-seed convertible note round, BetaKit reports. The funding was led by Los Angeles-based AlphaEdison, with participation from New York-based Ride Home Fund, Kitchener-Waterloo’s Garage Capital, United Talent Agency co-founder Jeremy Zimmer, and Real Ventures co-founder Jean-Sébastien Cournoyer.

Founded in 2025 by David Bennahum and Nicholas Nadeau, Onix provides a consumer app where users pay for access to "onixes"—AI versions of health and wellness practitioners. These experts, which include family nurse practitioner Ashley Shrader and psychiatrist and author David Rabin, contribute their work and public appearances to train their respective chatbots. The practitioners set their own subscription fees and receive 70 percent of the revenue, while Onix retains 30 percent.

To differentiate itself from frontier AI models, Onix emphasizes a privacy-first approach. According to BetaKit, the company trains smaller models that run locally on users' devices, meaning no conversation logs are kept and data does not return to a data center. Bennahum claims this results in inference costs that are "one two hundredths" of those associated with frontier models.

While the platform features experts in fields ranging from longevity to addiction recovery, Nadeau stated that Onix does not provide medical advice and has implemented guardrails to prevent the AI from entering that territory. The 10-person company is currently launching a paid model for individual iOS users in early access, with plans for a wider release later this year.