Equip, a US-based healthcare company providing an online eating disorder treatment, has raised $13m in its series A round from a consortium led by Optum Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of pharmacy benefit manager Optum, which is part of UnitedHealth Group.
Other investors in the round included a new investor, venture capital firm .406 Ventures, and existing investor, VC firm F-Prime Capital, which led the company’s prior seed round.
Equip said it had raised $17m in total to make eating disorder treatment accessible to all people through family-based treatment (FBT). Equip provides families with a five-person dedicated care team through its virtual platform to allow families to arrange treatment to fit their schedules and needs rather than requiring residential care in privately-owned treatment centres.
Kristina Saffran, who recovered from anorexia as a teenager and founded the nonprofit Project Heal at the age of 15, and Erin Parks, a clinical psychologist and researcher at the UC San Diego Eating Disorders Center, founded Equip in 2019.
Laura Veroneau, partner at Optum Ventures, said: “We have never seen a team with this combination of lived experience and clinical expertise, and we believe Equip will be the much-needed change agent in eating disorder treatment.”
