Startup Spotlight: Mindstrong’s virtual mental healthcare
The company’s approach has seen it raise $160mn across four funding rounds since its foundation in 2014. Its latest Series C round alone, announced earlier this month, won Mindstrong $100mn from participants including What If Ventures, Optum Ventures, Human Capital, General Catalyst, Foresite Capital, Bezos Expeditions (yes, that Bezos), ARCH Venture Partners and 8VC.
“People living with a serious mental illness will tell you that managing their symptoms isn’t one of those things that fit neatly into business hours or can be deferred because of COVID-19,” said Daniel Graf, CEO of Mindstrong in a press release. “The combination of our technology and our in-house clinical team puts us in a position to unlock a unique solution that increases access to care and improves health outcomes.”
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Mindstrong approaches serious mental illness with app-based virtual care from therapists and psychiatrists. Remote patient monitoring and AI-powered symptom measurement technology are also part of its solution, triggering alerts upon indication of deteriorating mental health.
“Mindstrong has clinically demonstrated that it can deliver health assurance to people who suffer from serious mental illness in a cost-effective manner,” said Hemant Taneja, managing director at General Catalyst. “I am excited to see Daniel and team scale the Mindstrong service with this capital to make a meaningful difference for this significant yet underserved population in our society.”
“1 in 5 adults experience mental illness, 1 in 25 experience serious mental illness, and the pandemic is making these numbers worse. Meanwhile, more than 60% of US counties don’t have a single practicing psychiatrist. Mindstrong’s approach is an idea whose time has come - its telemedicine and biomarker technology can help millions of people in need, while preventing expensive episodes and saving our health systems tens of billions of dollars,” said Joe Lonsdale of 8VC.
