SonderMind nets $150M as teletherapy goes mainstream

Steven Loeb · July 28, 2021 · Short URL: https://vator.tv/n/52c8

The company saw its revenue grow 400% over the last year

Of all the spaces that saw a major shift due to the pandemic, teletherapy was maybe the biggest beneficiary of the shifts that occurred over the last year and a half. Before COVID, Only eight percent of patients had tried telemedicine in any form; by October of 2020, nearly half of all Americans said they would be comfortable seeing a therapist remotely. That's a pretty stunning turnaround in a very short period of time.

Investors took notice, of course, and companies in this space were raising money left and right throughout 2020 and 2021, including CirrusMD, 98point6, Amwell, and QLER. The latest to get funded is SonderMind, which announced a $150 million Series C financing on Wednesday.

The round was co-led by new investors Drive Capital and Premji Invest. General Catalyst, Partners Group, Smash Ventures, Kickstart Fund, F-Prime Capital, Founders Circle Capital, Zoma Foundation, and FCA Venture Partners also participated, bringing the company's total capital raised to $183 million.

Along with the funding, the company also announced that it added a new member to its board: Molly Bonakdarpour, partner at Drive Capital and former Director of Commercial Partnerships at Livongo.

"Molly's experience in working with high-growth health technology growth companies will be invaluable, as well as her operational leadership in Livongo's early days," Mark Frank, co-founder and CEO of SonderMind, told VatorNews.

Founded in 2014, the SonderMind platform matches clients and therapists based on criteria such as specialty, availability, location, treatment approaches and insurance. Matches typically happen within in one or two days; after that, it usually takes another day or two for the therapist to reach out to schedule an appointment. That means, in total, a patient will be matched and scheduled in less than a week.

At the first appointment, the mental health clinician will ask the patient questions about their current situation, including asking about their mood, thoughts, and behavior. The clinician will also usually ask to speak to someone close to them, such as family or friends, to ask for their thoughts about how the patient is, and what changes they may have noticed.

After that initial assessment, the clinician will then make a recommendation about what treatment might be most helpful, depending on the type of mental health issues the patient is experiencing and their severity.

SonderMind's therapists are currently in-network with Aetna, Anthem (Blue Cross Blue Shield), Apostrophe, Bright Health, Cigna, Friday Health Plans, Kaiser, Optum, and United Healthcare. They are also in-network with Cigna EAP and United EAP, as well as Medicare in Colorado.

Since its $27 million Series B round in April 2020, the company has seen its revenue grow 400%, Frank told me. It's now providing mental health access for more than 73 million Americans.

"The outstanding growth we saw in existing markets and the stunning clinical results were extremely attractive to investors for the Series C," he said, noting, however, that he doesn't attribute that to the pandemic.

"Demand and utilization have grown in-line with our geographic expansion, but not with much change related directly to COVID. One aspect of our growth is having even more data that demonstrates how we are improving outcomes for SonderMind patients."

The new funding will be used to accelerate the company’s expansion into all fifty states; it's currently active in more than 10 states, and it expects to be available nationwide within a few years. In addition, it will also be put toward investing in technology, data and tools that will therapists in building their practices and getting better outcomes.

"We are excited to continue building the most clinically-efficacious mental health company in the world. SonderMind is built to make access easier, and we will help millions of Americans better navigate the system to not just find a therapist, but to find the right therapist," said Frank.

"Real therapy works, and SonderMind is on a mission to make sure it can work for everyone."