For the past couple of years, Vator, along with HP and UCSF Health Hub, has been holding salons about different aspects of the healthcare space, including the future or clinics and health insurance. One topic that we keep coming back to, and one that has turned out to be our most popular event, is mental health. (Our third mental health salon will be held on March 25, 2020. Get more info, and tickets, here)
Perhaps the popularity of these events shouldn't be a surprise; after all, mental health issues are becoming more prevalent, affecting around a quarter of the entire world population according to the World Health Organization. Accordingly, investors are getting in on the action as well: in the second quarter of this year, mental health and wellness companies raised $321 million, a 41 percent increase from the $227 million invested in the same quarter the year before.
Already this year has been some of the most prevalent companies in the space, including Calm, Quartet, TalkSpace and AbleTo, raise big funding rounds, along with some of the newcomers in the space, who have just raised their first seed fundings and are looking to make their mark.
Here are 25 of the mental health companies that have raised funding this year, from the biggest to some of the smallest:
Year founded: 2012
Description: "Sleep more. Stress less. Live better."
Date of funding: 2/6
Amount raised: $88 million
Total funding: $116 million
Investors: TPG Growth, Creative Artists Agency (CAA), Insight Venture Partners, Sound Ventures
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Year founded: 2015
Description: "We are harnessing the connection between brain circuits and behavior to transform drug discovery and development for neurobehavioral health."
Date of funding: 6/14
Amount raised: $76 million
Total funding: $130 million
Investors: Polaris Partners, Premier Partners, Scripps Research, Vertex Ventures HC, Alexandria Venture Investments, Altitude Life Science Ventures, ARCH Venture Partners, Biomatics Capital, GV, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Mercury Fund
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Year founded: 2014
Description: "Physical and mental health are intrinsically linked, yet treatment continues to be siloed and mental healthcare remains inaccessible, unaffordable, and stigmatized. That’s where we come in — through technology and services we effectively integrate mental healthcare to improve patient health, quality of life, and cost of care."
Date of funding: 6/13
Amount raised: $60 million
Total funding: $153 million
Investors: Centene Corporation, F-Prime Capital Partners, GV, Oak HC/FT, Polaris Partners
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Year founded: 2008
Description: "We work with customers across the globe to help them create healthier habits, reduce their risk of chronic health problems, reverse disease, and foster healthier relationships with themselves in the process."
Date of funding: 5/6
Amount raised: $58 million
Total funding: $114.7 million
Investors: Sequoia Capital, Aglaé Ventures, Jan Koum, Tony Xu, Josh Kushner, Scooter Braun, Samsung Ventures
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Year founded: 2012
Description: "It can be difficult to wait days or weeks until your next appointment. With Talkspace, you can send your therapist a message whenever you’re near a laptop, tablet, or smartphone. Your conversation carries over seamlessly across devices and uses banking-grade encryption to keep it safe and confidential."
Date of funding: 5/29
Amount raised: $50 million
Total funding: $106.7 million
Investors: Revolution Growth Norwest Venture Partners, Qumra Capital, Spark Capital, Compound Ventures
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Year founded: 2008
Description: "AbleTo is a leading provider of virtual behavioral health care. Deep behavioral health insights and an integrated proprietary platform identifies and engages the right patients with the right support – when and how they want it. Our proven programs improve clinical outcomes and lower health care costs."
Date of funding: 8/23
Amount raised: $36.6 million
Total funding: $46.6 million
Investors: Bain Capital Ventures, Aetna, .406 Ventures, Sandbox Industries, HLM Venture Partners, Horizon Healthcare Services
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Year founded: 2011
Description: "On-demand access to behavioral health coaching, video therapy and psychiatry, and self-guided content that’s clinically proven to reduce symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression."
Date of funding: 9/4
Amount raised: $35 million
Total funding: $63 million
Investors: WP Global Partners, City Light Capital, Nimble Ventures, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, Khosla Ventures, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Kapor Capital
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Year founded: 2014
Description: "Mindstrong is redefining how mental healthcare is delivered by combining expert clinical care and human compassion with the power of artificial intelligence, and machine learning."
Date of funding: 1/3
Amount raised: $31 million
Total funding: $60 million
Investors: General Catalyst, ARCH Venture Partners, Foresite Capital, Bezos Expeditions, Decheng Capital, Berggruen Holdings, One Mind Brain Health Impact Fund
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Year founded: 2017
Description: "At Two Chairs, we're building a world where everyone has access to exceptional mental health care. We provide high-quality, in-person psychotherapy at thoughtfully-designed clinics across the Bay Area. We tailor care to your unique needs, goals, and preferences through personalized matching and concierge insurance support."
Date of funding: 2/18 and 8/15
Amount raised: $7 million and $21 million
Total funding: $31 million
Investors: Maveron, Goldcrest, Amplo
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Year founded: 2012
Description: "Neurotrack has developed the first cognitive health program to help you manage your brain health and reduce the risk of future cognitive decline. Measure your cognition with our clinically-validated assessments and make impactful changes on your brain through our cognitive health program. We deliver all of this to you through our comprehensive digital platform. All you need is a mobile device."
Date of funding: 6/11
Amount raised: $21 million
Total funding: $50.4 million
Investors: Khosla Ventures, Dai-ichi Life SOMPO Holdings, Sozo Ventures, Rethink Impact, AME Cloud Partners
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Year founded: 2018
Description: "In today’s culture of balancing 24/7 work schedules with the demands of our personal lives and a growing addiction to technology, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, frustrated, or even depressed. We understand the feeling.
Our team of expert psychologists, therapists, coaches and instructors can help you find a better version of yourself in as little as a 30-minute session or class, virtual or in-person."
Date of funding: 10/22
Amount raised: $11 million
Total funding: $14 million
Investors: Greycroft, Obvious Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Brainchild Holdings, Cherubic Ventures
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Year founded: 2017
Description: "The first mental well-being platform for companies that helps all employees be happy and healthy."
Date of funding: 5/23
Amount raised: $9 million
Total funding: $11.4 million
Investors: Kleiner Perkins, Jared Leto, Y Combinator, Afore
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Year founded: 2015
Description: "BrainCheck provides rapid, mobile cognitive assessment and decision support technology to physicians, empowering them to deliver high-quality, personalized cognitive health care to patients everywhere and get reimbursed."
Date of funding: 10/9
Amount raised: $8 million
Total funding: $11 million
Investors: S3 Ventures, Tensility Venture Partners, True Wealth Ventures, Nueterra Capital
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Year founded: 2018
Description: "Alma is a community of therapists, coaches, and wellness professionals empowered with tools for better care."
Date of funding: 6/21
Amount raised: $8 million
Total funding: $12.5 million
Investors: Tusk Venture Partners, Sound Ventures, First Round Capital, Primary Ventures, Box Group, able Partners
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Year founded: 2016
Description: "Nview Health seeks to change the landscape for behavorial healthcare by providing online technologies that enable physicians to rapidly deliver diagnoses."
Date of funding: 9/24
Amount raised: $4.65 million
Total funding: $4.7 million
Investors: BIP Capital
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Year founded: 2015
Description: "Feel helps people build better and lasting emotional health with real-time, evidence-based advice and support 24/7."
Date of funding: 10/10
Amount raised: $4.5 million
Total funding: $6.3 million
Investors: Felicis Ventures, Anthemis, SOSV
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Year founded: 2015
Description: "Meru Health offers a complete and clinically proven treatment program for depression, anxiety, and burnout with long-lasting outcomes."
Date of funding: 4/26
Amount raised: $4.2 million
Total funding: $5.2 million
Investors: Freestyle Capital, Bonit Capital, Y Combinator, Lifeline Ventures, IT-Farm
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Year founded: 2016
Description: "Immerse yourself in a meditation experience that helps you burn bright, so you don't burn out."
Date of funding: 5/16
Amount raised: $4 million
Total funding: $5.6
Investors: Spero Ventures, Bolt, Corigin Ventures, Stanford-StartX Fund
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Year founded: 2014
Description: "We’re making it easier to get effective OCD treatment, so you can feel better faster."
Date of funding: 10/1
Amount raised: $4 million
Total funding: $5 million
Investors: Chicago Ventures, 7Wire Ventures, Meridian Street Capital, Hyde Park Angels
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Year founded: 2016
Description: "Youper is an Emotional Health Assistant. It’s the first of its kind. It applies Artificial Intelligence to monitor and improve your emotional health. It helps you feel your best with quick conversations based on various psychological techniques personalized to your needs and style."
Date of funding: 6/18
Amount raised: $3 million
Total funding: $3.5 million
Investors: Goodwater Capital
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Year founded: 2015
Description: "We believe in the power of human connection. We believe that meditation is more impactful when done with others so we’re building the world’s largest, most supportive, inclusive meditation community, both online and off."
Date of funding: 5/7
Amount raised: $2.4 million
Total funding: $3.2 million
Investors: Canaan, Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, Betaworks, BDMI, The Fund, Nelstone Ventures, New York Venture Partners, and multiple prominent angel investors
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Year founded: 2015
Description: "Sometimes we get all tangled up inside our heads, unable to move on. Wysa is great at helping you get unstuck. Co-designed by therapists, coaches, users and AI folk, Wysa lets you set the pace, helps when it can, and never judges. It is free and anonymous - so give it a try!"
Date of funding: 6/20
Amount raised: $2 million
Total funding: $3.9 million
Investors: pi Ventures, Kae Capital
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Year founded: 2016
Description: "Automatically track patient progress, make measurement-informed decisions, and get reimbursed for doing so with Blueprint."
Date of funding: 4/2
Amount raised: $1.3 million
Total funding: $1.3 million
Investors: Lightbank, Hyde Park Angels
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Year founded: 2017
Description: "We are on a mission to provide children with superior, evidence-based therapy, giving them the skills needed to thrive."
Date of funding: 8/22
Amount raised: $1.2 million
Total funding: $1.2 million
Investors: CMI Ventures
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Year founded: 2018
Description: "The Depression and Anxiety App That Works"
Date of funding: 7/22
Amount raised: $1 million
Total funding: $1 million
Investors: Laidir Foundation
(Image source: musculardystrophynews.com)
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Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Journey Meditation is building the world’s largest meditation community, both online and off, with a mission to help all people live happier, healthier, less stressed lives. Journey LIVE is a first-of-its-kind meditation app where users can begin or deepen their practice by joining daily live-streamed group meditations guided by experienced and diverse teachers. Founded in 2015, Journey also operates corporate programs in 15 cities around the world, serving organizations such as Facebook, Disney, Nike and Morgan Stanley, as well as charter schools, hospitals and nonprofits.
You can download Journey LIVE in the iOS App Store
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Therapy for the Way We Live Today. A New York-based online therapy start-up, our mission at Talkspace is to make therapy affordable and accessible to everyone. We have a network of professional, licensed therapists available for consultations and long-term treatment plans, all via your smartphone or the web.
Just like an office visit, your conversations are 100% confidential in your secure chat room. Your therapist is waiting to help you make a real, lasting difference in your life. You can message your therapist anytime and anywhere, from your smartphone or the web, 100% safe and secure. Welcome to the wonderful world of therapy, re-invented for how we live today.
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Enable My Child is a company specializing in quality pediatric care in mental health, speech & language pathology, physical therapy, and occupational therapy. Highly-qualified therapists providing exceptional child-centered, evidence-based, customized service with an innovative approach leveraging AI.
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Calm provides applications with hundreds of programs for intermediate and advanced users to relax their minds.
The company operates an online portal which allows busy and information loaded web workers to reduce stress.
Calm was founded by British entrepreneurs Michael Acton SmithOBE and Alex Tew, with a mission to make the world healthier and happier, and eventually become the “Nike for the mind”.
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Core introduced the first handheld guided meditation training device to the marketplace and is reinventing the mental wellness space. Core is committed to strengthening mental wellbeing worldwide and to connecting people with the tools they need to meditate and manage their stress levels. The company leverages data, and provides inspiration and personalized guidance, to enable its users to reach their goals. Founded in 2016, the handheld meditation device and experience company is headquartered in San Francisco, California. For more information, please visit https://www.hellocore.com/.
Startup/Business
Joined Vator on
Sentio Solutions is developing digital therapeutics and biomarkers for mental health. Its premier offering, the Feel Program, is an end-to-end solution for mental healthcare that combines emotion recognition technology with real-time, AI-driven interventions, 24/7/365 personalized support, and access to therapists. The program benefits individuals who are at-risk or suffering from depression, anxiety, high stress, and burn-out through benefits sponsored by their health plan or employer.
Feel Program consists of:
