Healthcare Innovation Company Mindstrong Raises $100 Million
Mindstrong, a company that is focused on transforming mental health through innovations in virtual care models and digital measurement, announced it has raised $100 million in Series C funding. The company’s Series C raise included participation from new and existing investors, including General Catalyst, ARCH Venture Partners, Foresite Capital, 8VC, Optum Ventures, and What If Ventures, and several others.
Mindstrong — which is built on the research of the company’s Founder, Vice Chairman, and Chief Scientific Officer Paul Dagum — is unlocking an entirely new virtual care model to deliver healthcare to people living with a serious mental illness (SMI). Plus they are also developing technology for remote patient monitoring and mental health symptom measurement. And their in-house clinical team of therapists, psychiatrists, and care coordinators use their technology platform to deliver flexible, efficient, and seamless virtual care to members through a smartphone app.
The clinical services are provided by their own team of full-time clinicians on an unlimited basis and at no cost to members due to Mindstrong’s value-based partnerships with national private and public insurance payers.
“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 Mindstrong CEO Daniel Graf. “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.”
Along with Mindstrong’s virtual care model, the member-facing smartphone app allows members to monitor their own mental health symptoms through AI-powered digital biomarker technology that can track changes in mental health symptoms. And more importantly, the technology can also trigger alerts to a member’s clinical team when these markers indicate their mental health may be at risk or deteriorating, outside of a therapy or psychiatry session.
“Mindstrong has clinically demonstrated that it can deliver health assurance to people who suffer from serious mental illness in a cost-effective manner,” added 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.”
Therapists use in-app messaging, video, and phone conversations for delivering cognitive-based therapy with members and help coordinate what is oftentimes a complex care plan for an individual living with a serious mental illness. And members can also receive telehealth medication management with a psychiatrist through the Mindstrong app.
“One in five 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,” explained Joe Lonsdale of 8VC.