Little Otter, a digital household psychological well being firm, has secured $9.5 million in strategic funding to increase its attain with Medicaid and business insurance coverage, the corporate introduced on Wednesday.
San Francisco-based Little Otter helps youngsters as much as the age of 18 and their households, with a deal with youngsters aged zero to 6. It treats sufferers for quite a lot of wants, together with despair, nervousness, self-harm, couple and marital battle and household relationships. The corporate provides remedy, psychiatry and father or mother teaching, and sufferers obtain tailor-made care plans, evaluation outcomes and progress stories. Little Otter at the moment operates in 15 states.
The $9.5 million fundraise included participation from Pivotal Ventures, Torch Capital, Springbank, CRV, Subsequent Legacy, G9, Gratitude Railroad and Carrie Walton Penner’s Fiore Ventures. Little Otter has raised greater than $36 million so far.
“As we speak’s younger folks face unprecedented challenges that demand a recent perspective on psychological healthcare,” mentioned Erin Harkless Moore, director of investments at Pivotal Ventures, in a press release. “Little Otter stands out by means of its scientific excellence throughout all ranges of care from gentle to extreme, treating each younger sufferers and their households.”
The funding will assist Little Otter advance its AI-powered platform, which is able to “make it even simpler to attach households with personalised companies, shortly triage sufferers, and ship digital whole-family care,” mentioned Rebecca Egger, co-founder and CEO of the corporate, in an electronic mail.
It’ll additionally assist Little Otter scale to help extra Medicaid and business members. It at the moment works with Independence Blue Cross, Florida Blue, AmeriHealth, Sana, Kaiser Permanente Northern California and Blue Cross and Blue Protect of Minnesota.
Digital psychological well being firms that concentrate on youth — like Little Otter — have gotten extra frequent and are gaining curiosity from buyers. In 2023, funding in digital well being startups addressing youth psychological well being accounted for 34% of whole digital behavioral well being funding, up from 15% in 2018, in response to a current Rock Well being report. And for good motive: greater than 21% of younger Individuals battle a psychological or behavioral well being dysfunction, and 53% of working dad and mom have missed work at the very least as soon as a month resulting from their little one’s psychological well being, in response to the identical report.
Different digital firms supporting youth psychological well being embody BeMe Well being, InStride Well being and Backpack. Whereas Egger didn’t point out these firms as rivals, she famous that Little Otter stands out for its deal with caring for kids underneath six.
“Whereas different firms may supply simply father or mother teaching for very younger youngsters or simply generalized psychological well being, we mix evidence-based care with a family-centered strategy, tailoring help to every household’s distinctive wants,” she declared.
The corporate has achieved some outcomes as nicely, offering greater than 56,000 care visits in 2024. About 85% of households see enhancements in six periods and 71% of kids expertise remission of signs after 12 periods, in response to the announcement.
In the end, Little Otter goals to “make psychological well being care accessible, efficient, and tailor-made for households in every single place,” Egger mentioned.
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