16 Startups Advancing Mental Health Care Technology
This July, StartUp Health is showcasing the companies in our portfolio who are innovating in the Mental Health & Happiness Health Moonshot.
Investors, get a first look at how you can back health moonshots using StartUp Health’s new rolling impact fund, in collaboration with AngelList.
For 2021, we’re excited to introduce Moonshot Programming in which we highlight leading Health Transformers focused on our 12 Health Moonshots. This month, we’re highlighting the startups in our portfolio who are focused on advancing mental health research and delivering happiness to those in need.
In recent years, mental health has become more acknowledged than ever. With a worldwide pandemic halting us in our tracks, the social unrest regarding the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd last year, the political tension from the 2020 election, to the inevitable highs and lows experienced in our daily lives, symptoms of stress and anxiety are at an all-time high.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, during August 2020-February 2021, the percentage of adults with recent symptoms of an anxiety or a depressive disorder increased from 36.4% to 41.5% and the percentage of those reporting unmet mental health care needs increased from 9.2% to 11.7%. As discouraging as this sounds, healthcare leaders around the world are joining forces to develop the appropriate support to help people live healthier lives — a few of which are in our own portfolio.
At StartUp Health, we know that the continuing need for mental health and wellbeing services is more prominent than ever. Thankfully, we’ve backed more than a dozen startups focused on exactly that. From private social health networks to culturally intentional teletherapy, the list below features companies from all around the globe who are reimagining what it means to thrive and feel whole inside and out.
Get to know the StartUp Health portfolio companies that are innovating in the Mental Health & Happiness Moonshot:
AQai
Health Transformers: Ross Thornley, CEO & Co-founder, and Mike Raven, Partnerships & Co-founder
For employees struggling with mental health issues due to the pressure of the workforce, AQai has built an AI-powered assessment and coaching platform to open up the frontier of human adaptability. Collaborating with the world’s leading research and scientists, they’ve built an evidence-backed model and assessments of adaptability (“adaptability quotient” or AQ), offer AQ certifications, and specialized training, all with the goal of helping organizations and teams navigate and thrive through change. There are 15 areas of assessment that range from “grit” to “mental flexibility” to “mindset,” with each offering global averages for comparison and in-depth background reading. Together with two predictive indicators in “change readiness” and a “re-skill index.”
Butterflly Health
Health Transformers: Areva Martin, CEO & Co-founder, and Rodney Bell, COO & Co-founder
For underrepresented populations and Medicaid/Medicare enrollees who have suffered from a lack of culturally relevant mental health platforms, Butterflly Health offers culturally-centered, intersectional, and evidence-based self-care for teens and adults. Butterflly’s behavioral health platform provides users with peer-to-peer support, mood check-ins, one-on-one texting, therapist matching, access to coaching and coping tools catered to current events, and easily accessible individualized health assessments.
Cloud 9
Health Transformer: J.C. Adams, Founder
Cloud 9 is on a mission to deliver mental, physical, and social health access to underserved populations. The company’s telehealth data and communication solution is designed specifically for integrated care collaboration. The company connects city and county public healthcare to public safety and social services addressing the needs of vulnerable populations. Cloud 9’s Patient-Centric Mesh Network allows full data and communication between patients and multidisciplinary care teams. This architecture allows each care team user appropriate access to their level of relevant patient data. This architecture also allows care teams to collaborate using Cloud 9’s clinical collaboration workflows.
Eco-Fusion
Health Transformer: Oren Fuerst, PhD, CEO, Chairman & Founder
For patients who suffer from untreated stress, the team at Eco-Fusion has developed a patented, AI-driven personalized stress reduction app called Serenita that targets stress as a way to reduce chronic disease burden. Serenita uses the phone’s camera as a biosensor to measure stress levels and provides personalized breathing guidance to users. Serenita is clinically proven to efficiently reduce stress and physiologic biomarkers of disease. It only requires placing your finger on the phone’s camera and breathing. Eco-Fusion has also built NewMe, a digital therapeutics (DTx) platform designed to help manage chronic diseases.
Hurdle
Health Transformers: Kevin Dedner, MPH, CEO & Founder
The team at Hurdle provides culturally-intentional teletherapy for underserved populations. With cultural humility, Hurdle (fka Henry Health) creates a safe space where all people can show up as they are and feel understood. The team is committed to providing culturally-responsive and evidence-based care to all people while focusing on serving the Black community and other minorities. Hurdle’s team of licensed providers is trained to provide culturally responsive care for a variety of stressors, including anger, trauma, careers, PTSD, grief and loss, substance use, anxiety, and more.
Journey Meditation
Health Transformer: Stephen Sokoler, CEO & Founder
Journey is one of the leading preventative mental health solutions for modern companies. Rooted in live group learning, peer support, and proactive health, Journey provides an engaging, cost-effective way to reduce turnover, tackle burnout, and help employees live happier, healthier lives. The team teaches live, group wellbeing classes in a simple, approachable way to local communities, inside organizations around the world, and every day through the Journey LIVE app.
Neolth
Health Transformers: Katherine Grill, PhD, CEO & Co-founder, and Lukas Grill, MSc, COO & Co-founder
Neolth’s digital platform uses a proprietary precision neuroscience approach to provide on-demand, individualized mental health support for students. Children and teens receive personalized stress management plans that they can complete entirely online so that they get help when and where they need it. Plans include the Neolth screening tool that securely collects health data; the Neolth treatment matching algorithm which extracts user data to automatically generate and update personalized care plans; the Neolth platform that delivers proprietary, evidence-based, behavioral practices, and enables progress tracking and care management by healthcare professionals; and Neolth’s video library that provides additional support via expert-led psychoeducation and student stories.
PSYCHeANALYTICS
Health Transformers: David Haddick, CEO, Jodie NewDelman, PsyD, CCO, and Arthur Keller, PhD, Chief Data Scientist & Co-founder
PYCHeANALYTICS is a unique SaaS expert system that can assess a patients’ psychosocial and behavioral health in the waiting room, before the physician visit. The team offers an automated solution that enables integrated care to be delivered at a reasonable cost and with a more efficient workflow. PYCHeANALYTICS’ solution is uniquely focused on identifying patients’ behavioral health conditions, so they can be treated in the clinic or referred to vetted outsource partners and digital health applications.
PsychOnline
Health Transformer: Nirav Dalal, CEO & Co-founder
For mental health providers who suffer from clinical burnout and patients who lack access to care or are dissatisfied with care, PsychOnline is leading the way to simplify mental health workflow through a platform that increases provider efficiency by 25–30% while improving patient engagement. PsychOnline’s clinical workflow-based web app is for mental health professionals, facilities, and patients. Providers and facilities have a choice on whether to use the technology for their practice or as a marketplace for patients to find them. The treatment is convenient and seamless whether done via a HIPAA-compliant video session or in an in-office setting.
Rose Health
Health Transformer: Kavi Misri, Founder & CEO
For providers and patients looking to simplify the process for patients to seek and receive mental health care, the Rose App allows patients and providers to communicate and understand each other in a continually adaptive manner to allow for improved quality of care and management, productive and robust individuals, and a reduction in overall healthcare costs. Rose’s proprietary machine learning algorithms identify mental wellbeing and provide curated, individualized daily insights for self-care to the patient. Rose allows patients to complete validated assessments; keep a daily journal; and track mood, anxiety, sleep, and activity levels. This real-time data is then sent to the clinician’s technology-driven dashboard to improve care, integration, and efficiency.
SageSurfer
Health Transformer: Anupam Khandelwal, CEO & Co-founder
SageSurfer is a National Science Foundation-backed, HIPAA-compliant digital platform that connects members with their care team and helps them stay on track between visits. Their platform seamlessly connects with EHRs and other healthcare systems to deliver 360-degree-views for providers and help them deliver better treatment options for behavioral health members. By combining an integrated care model using AI, personalized tools, and 150+ pre-built and culturally-relevant workflows, SageSurfer has helped underserved members across the country stay in treatment while unlocking millions of dollars in reimbursements and cost savings for providers.
Sana Health
Health Transformer: Richard Hanbury, CEO & Founder
Sana Health has developed a non-addictive simple mask and headphones worn by the user. The device uses audiovisual stimulation to increase the balance between the left and right sides of the brain leading to greater relaxation. Ongoing use of the Sana mask resembles the effect of long-term meditative practices which leads to a more restful state overall. Sana can clear a busy mind and accelerate physical recovery and improve mental wellbeing.
SORCE
Health Transformers: Jessica Corbin, CEO & Co-founder, and Kristi Britto, COO & Co-founder
SORCE offers biofeedback-driven coaching to increase performance and prevent burnout for organizations. SORCE’s quantitative measurements can increase workforce readiness and prevent valuable employees from leaving. The team consists of experts in burnout, work performance, and retention to meet the challenges of 21st-century workplace needs.
TQIntelligence
Health Transformer: Dr. Yared Alemu, CEO & Founder
TQIntelligence’s platform, Clarity AI, is a voice/Speech AI talk therapy software that extracts voice biomarkers to measure the severity of emotional distress for children and adolescents. The software enables the therapist (provider) and Utilization Manager (payer) to collaborate in real-time to improve treatment outcomes, including managing high-risk patients to divert them for unnecessary high-dollar inpatient hospitalization.
Connect with the team at TQIntelligence.
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Unpluq
Health Transformers: Jorn Rigter, CEO & Co-founder, Tim Smits, COO & Co-founder, and Harrison Burch, Head of Growth & Co-founder
For individuals looking to regain control over their smartphones and businesses looking to provide focus to their employees, Unpluq provides a platform to limit smartphone distractions through a combination of a hardware USB key and software. Unpluq’s physical key limits access to distracting apps when removed (patent-pending). Users can self-select distracting apps and track the time they spend on these apps. The platform will also include education on digital wellness and conscious choice habit changing.
Valera Health
Health Transformers: Thomas Tsang, MD, MPH, CEO & Co-founder
The team at Valera Health believes that mental health care should be simple, accessible, and affordable. With Valera Health, users can access their therapist and psychiatrist in one place, with a dedicated health coach to help coordinate their care and support their wellness goals throughout treatment. Here’s how it works: Users can schedule a free consultation with one of Valera’s health coaches. During the consult, the health coach will assess your needs and answer any questions you may have before matching you with a qualified provider and schedule your first appointment. Then you can connect with your care team and start your journey to wellness.
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