Nov 3 (Reuters) - Hippocratic AI raised $126 million in

its latest funding round led by Avenir Growth, it said on

Monday, valuing the healthcare company at $3.5 billion and

underscoring venture capital's strong interest towards

artificial intelligence-integrated companies.

Private funding has remained strong, as companies keep

getting valued in billions by startup investors looking to

capture the AI rush. The 46% of all global venture funding in

the third quarter went towards AI companies.

The round also saw participation from other investors,

including Google's growth fund CapitalG, General Catalyst, A16z,

Kleiner Perkins and Universal Health Services, among others.

The latest round - Series C - comes after the company raised

$278 million at a valuation of $1.64 billion earlier in the

year.

Hippocratic AI was co-founded by CEO Munjal Shah alongside a

group of physicians, hospital administrators, healthcare

professionals and AI researchers from El Camino Health, Johns

Hopkins, Stanford, Microsoft ( MSFT ), Google and

NVIDIA ( NVDA ).