US-based mental health diagnostics technology developer Mindstrong has raised $100m in series C funding from investors including Optum Ventures, the venture capital subsidiary of healthcare services provider Optum.
The round included General Catalyst, Arch Venture Partners, Foresite Capital, 8VC and What If Ventures. It took Mindstrong’s overall funding to $145m.
Mindstrong has developed a mobile app that relies on artificial intelligence to monitor biomarkers that can indicate a deterioration in a patient’s mental health.
The software alerts a therapist who can then use messaging, video and phone conversations to support the patient through cognitive behavioural therapy. The company also operates a telehealth medication management service.
The offering is aimed at users living with serious mental illness and is free to patients, the costs being covered by health insurance plans.
Mindstrong will put the funding into scaling its business. In a statement announcing the round, chief executive Daniel Graf specifically mentioned the difficulties thrown up by Covid-19 involving seeing therapists in person.
The round comes after the company raised $15m in a mid-2018 series B round featuring Optum Ventures, Arch Venture Partners, Foresite Capital, Bezos Expeditions and Decheng Capital. It subsequently added $31m in an extension led by General Catalyst in January 2019.
Optum Ventures had already contributed to a $14m series A round for Mindstrong in 2017 that was co-led by Arch Venture Partners and Foresite Capital and backed by Berggruen Holdings and One Mind Brain Health Impact Fund.
