INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
&Our real focus is on democratizing mental healthcare,& says SonderMind co-founder chief executive, Mark Frank.
His company, founded back
in 2017, is having a moment
With the restrictions and economic stresses caused by the government efforts to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic in the U.S.,
demand for mental health services is soaring
And it compounding what was already a mental health crisis in the U.S.
A 2019 article from Bloomberg Businessweek laid out the scope of the
In 2017, 47,000 people died by suicide in the U.S
and there were 1.4 million suicide attempts — a suicide rate that the country highest since World War II, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention
Drug overdoses, another measure of the nation anguish, killed 70,000 people in 2017
adults reported suffering at least one major depressive episode in 2018.
Taken together, the data points to a tremendous health problem
One that the current healthcare system is only now grappling with.
SonderMind chief executive sees his company as part of the
solution.
Most mental health practitioners don&t operate within a healthcare network or take insurance, which means that the only folks with
access to care are the ones that can afford the high price of therapy
SonderMind changes that equation by offering practitioners a toolkit and back office services so they can bill insurance providers and take
care of the operational side of running a healthcare practice
It also acts as a funnel, gauging the needs of potential patients and connecting them to the therapists that are best suited to provide them
That lets practitioners focus on seeing patients, the company said.
The company currently counts 500 providers on its marketplace, which
operates in Colorado, Arizona and Texas, and has raised $27 million in its latest round of financing to extend its services to other parts
of the U.S.
The San Francisco-based investment firm General Catalyst led the financing, which also included additional new investors F-Prime
Capital and participation from previous investors like the Kickstart Seed Fund, Diōko Ventures (managed by FCA Venture Partners) and
Jonathan Bush.
&This financing provides the fuel to support our growth objectives and advance our mission to make behavioral health more
accessible, approachable and utilized by building a modern marketplace that holds great appeal to both clinician and patient,& said Frank in
a statement.
The investment extends General Catalyst funding into healthcare services in recent years and represents a continued emphasis on
healthcare services for the firm
&Healthcare is obviously a really important thesis for GC as a whole,& says Holly Maloney, a managing director at General Catalyst
&This is going to be one of the largest value drivers for VC this decade.&
General Catalyst already had a robust portfolio of
healthcare-focused companies — including Livongo, OM1 and Oscar Health.
For Maloney, the investment in SonderMind grew out of the firm
exposure to mental health investment through another portfolio company, Mindstrong Health
&Mindstrong forced us to explore… access to care and finding care,& says Maloney.
The General Catalyst investor sees the investment in
SonderMind as also helping to open doors for more people to join the profession.
&It helps people to start their business for sure
It helps more people pursue it as a career path,& she said
And that good for a country where more mental health professionals and better access to care are desperately needed.
