About Aeva

Meet the people behind Aeva

Two best friends from New Zealand on a mission to make sure no patient call goes unanswered.

Aeva AI is an AI phone receptionist for allied health clinics, used by 3,200+ practitioners. It answers patient calls 24/7 and books straight into Cliniko, Splose, PracSuite and Nookal. Founded in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2023.

Meet the team
  • Founded 2023
  • Auckland, New Zealand
  • Founder-owned and bootstrapped
Chris Baxter and Louis Evans, co-founders of Aeva
Chris Baxter and Louis Evans, co-founders
Practitioners
3,200+
Patient calls answered
390,000+
Appointments booked
44,000+
Revenue generated for clinics
$14.5M+

Figures as of September 2026.

Listed, partnered and featured
Our story
20,000+phone calls Chris made himself before Aeva

Aeva was started by Chris Baxter and Louis Evans, best friends from New Zealand.

Before Aeva, Chris made a lot of phone calls. Over 20,000 of them.

He learned two things. A missed call is a missed opportunity. And there is a right way for a phone call to go: fast, warm, and ending with something booked.

Louis was the mate who could build things. A software engineer by training, he is the reason Aeva sounds human rather than robotic.

The two of them started talking to clinic owners. Hundreds of them. Physios, chiros, podiatrists, osteos, psychologists. Every conversation came back to the same thing.

Practitioners were busy treating patients. Phones were going to voicemail. And potential patients were slipping away.

  • Endless ringing

    Phones ring constantly with no one free to answer.

  • Booking mistakes

    Wrong times, double bookings, and frustrated patients.

  • $50–80k reception wages

    A large overhead before a single patient is seen.

  • Answering services that miss the mark

    $300 to $1,000+ a month, and still getting the details wrong.

  • After-hours silence

    Anyone calling outside hours reaches voicemail. Most don't leave a message.

  • So they built Aeva.

    A receptionist that answers every call, sounds like a person, books straight into the clinic's practice software, and is set up in under an hour.

The founders

Built by two founders. Still run by the same two.

Chris Baxter

Chris Baxter

Co-founder & CEOAuckland, NZ

Born in Australia, raised in New Zealand, now based in Auckland. Chris has made over 20,000 phone calls himself, which is why he's obsessive about what a patient hears when a clinic picks up: fast, warm, and ending with something booked.

Before Aeva he ranked #1 globally in the Ray White group for appraisals generated by cold calling (2023). He speaks on AI for clinics at events including AI New Zealand and Clinic Mastery.

He's the first person most clinic owners speak to at Aeva and the one who makes sure things run smoothly after they sign up. He writes the weekly founder update, reads every reply, and still answers the phone himself.

Louis Evans

Louis Evans

Co-founder & CTOAuckland, NZ

Louis built Aeva's entire voice and booking engine from scratch. The voice pipeline that makes Aeva sound like a real receptionist, the integration layer that books directly into Cliniko, Splose, PracSuite and Nookal, and the verification agent that checks every booking against the live diary. Nobody else in allied health has shipped that combination.

In May 2026 he led the engineering push that cut Aeva's call response times by 50%. He studied Creative Technologies at Auckland University of Technology.

He's up at 4:30am most days, so new features usually land before the rest of the team is awake.

How we got here

Bootstrapped from day one. No outside money, no shortcuts.

Every feature on Aeva's roadmap came from a clinic owner asking for it.

  1. May 2023

    Aeva starts as an AI calling agency

    Building AI receptionists and calling agents for global sporting events, concerts, real estate, broking and just about every other industry that picked up the phone. Over 100,000 outbound calls in the first year.

  2. 2024

    757 conversations with clinic owners

    Before writing much code, Chris and Louis talked to hundreds of clinics to understand exactly where calls go missing.

  3. December 2024

    A 40-clinician design partner

    A 40-clinician clinic group signs on to shape the receptionist with Chris and Louis before launch.

  4. January 2025

    The first integration goes live and Aeva changes direction

    Aeva books its first appointment straight into Cliniko, and the company reshapes around one mission: allied health and MSK, assisting private clinics. Within months, Aeva becomes the most-used AI receptionist for Cliniko clinics.

  5. Mid 2025

    Voices that don't sound like AI

    Chris and Louis hated how AI voices sounded, so they spent months building the best voices on the market, trained on real receptionists and tuned for NZ, Australian and UK callers.

  6. December 2025

    1,000+ practitioners

    A year after the first clinic went live, more than 1,000 practitioners use Aeva.

  7. January 2026

    100,000 calls answered

    Aeva passes 100,000 patient calls answered for clinics.

  8. January 2026

    Aeva Outbound launches

    Aeva starts making calls as well as taking them, bringing lapsed patients back and refilling the diary when a practitioner cancels.

  9. 2026

    Splose, PracSuite and Nookal join Cliniko

    New practice software integrations, so more clinics can plug Aeva straight in.

  10. August 2026

    Aeva Website Concierge launches in early access

    The same receptionist, now on the clinic's website, nurturing visitors before prompting a booking.

  11. September 2026

    3,200+ practitioners and 390,000+ calls answered

    More than 44,000 appointments booked straight into clinic diaries along the way.

  12. Today

    Eight people, five cities

    Clinics across Australia, the UK and New Zealand. Still bootstrapped. Still building what clinic owners ask for.

  13. Next

    Bigger features, more integrations

    Two-way SMS and new practice management integrations are in the works, with every feature coming from a clinic owner asking for it.

Meet the team

The eight people who build Aeva.

Aeva is a team of eight as of October 2026, with backgrounds in physiotherapy, clinic management, contact-centre operations, practice-management support and software engineering.

  • Luke Santamaria

    Luke Santamaria

    “Ex-Physio Turned Software Guru”

    Clinic Growth PartnerMelbourne

    The one clinics meet on a demo. Luke spent four years as a physio and clinic manager in Melbourne, then ran two startups of his own, one acquired.

    What's a completely useless skill you're weirdly proud of?
    I can do a great Donald Duck impersonation. My kids love it, but it serves no actual benefit to me in real life.
    What's an opinion you have that everyone around you thinks is wrong?
    Anchorman is the greatest film of all time.
  • Ruby Lister

    Ruby Lister

    “The Newest Hire”

    Customer SuccessChristchurch

    Ruby spent two years supporting medical practices on an NZ practice management software, and before that helped put Starlink into NZ schools.

    What's a completely useless skill you're weirdly proud of?
    Turning complicated technical issues into simple, relatable explanations that actually help people understand what's going on.
    What's an opinion you have that everyone around you thinks is wrong?
    Everything happens for a reason, and rejection is just redirection. Sometimes the universe has a way of aligning things for you that you might not understand at the time.
  • Garth Trickett

    Garth Trickett

    “The Gatekeeper of Reliability”

    Head of EngineeringBali

    Before Aeva, Garth helped grow and scale the tech for Acorn, an Australian-founded business skills platform. If something shipped on a Friday afternoon, he's probably the one publishing it.

    What's a completely useless skill you're weirdly proud of?
    I managed to eat 100 chicken nuggets in one sitting.
    What's an opinion you have that everyone around you thinks is wrong?
    Green vegetables are bad for you.
  • Dan Chavez

    Dan Chavez

    “Says Nothing, Ships Everything”

    Senior Full Stack Developer

    Joined in February 2026 and has been moving Aeva's backend from no-code tools into proper code ever since. Before Aeva, Dan built a food delivery platform to 10,000 orders in its first year.

    What's a completely useless skill you're weirdly proud of?
    Spending way too much time perfecting tiny details. Terrible for deadlines, but I usually notice things I would've completely missed otherwise.
    What's an opinion you have that everyone around you thinks is wrong?
    Being a little lazy can actually be a good thing. If something feels unnecessarily difficult or repetitive, I'd rather find an easier way to do it than just accept that this is how it's done.
  • Nick Viduya

    Nick Viduya

    “The Backend Whisperer”

    Software EngineerCebu

    Years of building for US startups, all from Cebu. Detailed, fast and always exceeds expectations.

    What's a completely useless skill you're weirdly proud of?
    I can name almost any song in the first two seconds of the intro.
    What's an opinion you have that everyone around you thinks is wrong?
    Filipino sweet spaghetti with hotdogs is better than Italian spaghetti.
  • Vins Caderao

    Vins Caderao

    “The Booking Script Fixer”

    Customer Support

    The one who fixes clinics' booking scripts. Vins managed ops and quality teams in a big contact centre, so he's heard every way a phone call can go wrong.

    What's a completely useless skill you're weirdly proud of?
    I can crack my fingers using only the thumb on the same hand. I can also crack my jaw infinitely. I don't abuse that one because I feel like one day it might just lock permanently!
    What's an opinion you have that everyone around you thinks is wrong?
    Most people don't actually need to upgrade their phone every two years. I've had mine for four years and I'm still using it.
  • Louis Evans

    Louis Evans

    “The Guy Who Made Aeva Sound Human”

    Co-founder & CTOAuckland, NZ

    The reason Aeva sounds human. Studied Creative Technologies at AUT and was building software for other companies in Auckland before starting Aeva.

    What's a completely useless skill you're weirdly proud of?
    Waking up at 4:30am most days. Although sometimes it comes in handy with working on new features live before the rest of the team are even awake.
    What's an opinion you have that everyone around you thinks is wrong?
    Green is the best colour. Almost all my items of clothing are green. Now I just need to get a green suit jacket for my headshot.
  • Chris Baxter

    Chris Baxter

    “Made 20,000 Phone Calls So You Don't Have To”

    Co-founder & CEOAuckland, NZ

    Born in Australia, raised in New Zealand, now based in Auckland. Chris was selling property in Auckland before Aeva and found a liking for dialling lots of phone calls. That's where the idea and the skills came from.

    What's a completely useless skill you're weirdly proud of?
    Calling over 20,000 people myself to learn how an amazing phone call should go. Turns out it wasn't so useless after all.
    What's an opinion you have that everyone around you thinks is wrong?
    Everyone lets what happened today decide how they feel today. I stopped doing that a few years ago. Still feel it all, I just don't let it set the mood or the decisions.

That's the team. Eight people, five cities, all listening to the clinic owners Aeva serves.

Read the full team Q&A

Talks and media

Where has Aeva been featured?

  • InterviewJuly 2026

    Painless Practice

    Chris Baxter with Celia Champion.

  • Workshop23 June 2026

    Clinic Mastery: AI Systems for Modern Clinics

    Chris Baxter with Jack O’Brien.

  • PodcastMay 2026

    Allied Health Business Brilliance

    Chris Baxter with Cathy Love, Nacre Consulting.

    Listen
  • Conference talkJuly 2025

    AI New Zealand

    Talk by Chris Baxter.

Read the Weekly Founder Update

Aeva has been an absolute game changer for our practice! It has blown our expectations out of the water. It handles calls well, is great at rebooking patients and has allowed our reception team time to concentrate on other tasks. Highly recommend!

April Jackson PodiatryAustralia · 24 September 2026
Read more reviews
Now hiring

Come build with us

Aeva is a small, fast-moving team rebuilding how clinics communicate with patients. Anyone who gets excited about AI or healthcare is welcome to get in touch.

Get in touch
Chris Baxter presenting at the AI New Zealand conference
Questions

Questions about the company

Product, pricing and data questions are on the main FAQ page.

Aeva AI was founded in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2023 by Chris Baxter (Co-founder & CEO) and Louis Evans (Co-founder & CTO). The company, Aeva Limited, is founder-owned and bootstrapped.

Aeva is a team of eight as of October 2026: the two co-founders plus engineering, customer support, customer success and clinic growth, including a former physiotherapist and clinic manager.

As of September 2026, Aeva is used by 3,200+ practitioners at clinics across Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, with clinics in Canada, Ireland and the USA. It has answered 390,000+ patient calls and booked 44,000+ appointments.

No. Aeva AI is a trading name of Aeva Limited, a New Zealand company (number 8747410). It is not related to Aeva Technologies (NYSE: AEVA), the US LiDAR company.

Aeva at a glance

The short version.

Company
Aeva Limited, trading as Aeva AI. NZ company no. 8747410, NZBN 9429051333676. Registered office: c/o KPMG, 18 Viaduct Harbour Avenue, Auckland 1010, New Zealand.Companies Office record
Founded
Incorporated 15 May 2023. First Aeva receptionist for clinics launched January 2025.
Headquarters
Auckland, New Zealand, with the team working from Bali, Melbourne, Christchurch and Cebu.
Ownership
Founder-owned and bootstrapped. No outside investors.
What it does
An AI phone receptionist for allied health clinics. Answers patient calls 24/7 and books, reschedules and cancels appointments directly in the clinic's practice software.
Integrations
Cliniko (2025), Splose (2026), PracSuite (2026) and Nookal (2026).
Markets
Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand, with clinics in Canada, Ireland and the USA.
Privacy
Independently assessed by Ciphrix (2026) against UK and EU GDPR, the Australian Privacy Principles and the NZ Privacy Act. Call recordings and transcripts are stored encrypted in Australia. Aeva does not store clinical records.Trust CentrePrivacy PolicyTerms of ServiceData Processing Agreement
Not to be confused with
Aeva Technologies, the US LiDAR company. No relation.