US-based on-demand therapist service Talkspace raised $9.5m yesterday in a series A round co-led by telecommunications company SoftBank and venture capital firm Spark Capital.
VC firm Metamorphic Ventures and investment firm TheTime also participated in the round.
Talkspace provides an instant messaging platform through which patients can anonymously connect with licensed therapists to access mental healthcare for conditions such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or anxiety.
The platform also enables couples to seek out therapy. To date, some 100,000 people in the US have used Talkspace, paying from $25 a week for the service following a free initial consultation. Users can ask to change therapists at any time and without incurring a fee.
Talkspace received $3.5m in seed funding over the course of 2014, securing an initial $2.5m from SoftBank Capital and Spark Capital in May and an additional $1m from Metamorphic in December.
Roni Frank, co-founder and head of clinical services at Talkspace, said: “Mental illness is a worldwide epidemic and that is the problem we are here to solve. By removing the barriers to entry for millions of people, we are making it easy for people to be proactive about their mental health.”