Cerebral Inc, a virtual mental health startup, raised $300 million in new financing, according to a news release Wednesday.
SoftBank Vision Fund 2 led the Series C funding round, with additional investment from Access Industries, ARTIS Ventures, Prysm Capital and WestCap Group. Cerebral has raised $462 million in total since it launched a couple of years ago.
The company plans to use the money to invest in new services, strategic partnerships, international expansion, and mergers and acquisitions, according to a news release. Those investments should help Cerebral grow its direct-to-consumer business and value-based care contracts with insurers and employers, according to the company. The company already works with Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Magellan and Medicare.
“Cerebral is uniquely positioned to be the one-stop shop for high-quality mental healthcare as we provide care for a wide range of conditions and provide multiple treatment modalities including medication management, therapy and digital therapeutics,” Cerebral CEO Kyle Robertson said in a news release.
Employers, traditional providers, insurers and government agencies are growing more interested in providing access to mental health services through teletherapy apps. But there’s a lack of data about whether they’re effective since many teletherapy apps initially focused on selling directly to consumers and separated themselves from their competitors through marketing and pricing, not evidence.
Now many of these startups are trying to prove they actually work because, unlike many consumers, employers and insurers aren’t willing to take their word for it. Many experts see digital therapeutics as the way forward since they need to meet evidence-based standards similar to other therapies like pharmaceuticals to get regulatory approval.
SonderMind, a mental health startup that connects patients with clinicians for virtual or in-person visits, raised $150 million in the third quarter, making it one of the largest telehealth deals during that period, according to data from Digital Health Business & Technology. The company recently bought data and machine-learning company Qntfy for an undisclosed amount.
