Osmind Raises $40M for Breakthrough Mental Health Therapies

Severe mental health disorders are complicated problems to solve, and the legacy documentation systems used by most psychiatrists don’t do much to help the rate of progress. Electronic health record startup Osmind raised $40M in Series B funding to equip psychiatrists with tools to better manage complex patients, while also starting to fill the data gap in research for breakthrough therapies.

On the surface, Osmind offers an EHR tailored to clinicians serving patients with treatment-resistant mental health conditions like severe depression and PTSD.

  • The Osmind EHR supports clinical and administrative functions with features that streamline charting workflows, automate outcome tracking, and drive engagement.
  • An integrated mobile app enables patients to record their thoughts and feelings in between visits, giving providers a clearer view of their patients’ overall well-being. 

The back end of Osmind’s platform is equally as important as the EHR. A real-world evidence engine takes the granular data from the EHR and makes it available to researchers studying breakthrough mental health treatments such as ketamine and psychedelics.

  • While other companies like Flatiron Health and Verily also leverage anonymized patient data to influence therapy design, Osmind has quickly compiled a leading dataset to help translate this strategy to the mental health arena.
  • Earlier this year, Osmind partnered with Stanford University School of Medicine to publish the largest-ever real-world data study on ketamine infusion therapy as a treatment for depression.

The fresh funding will be used to expand Osmind’s team as well as the types of data its software can capture to advance a wider range of clinical trials and therapies.

The Takeaway

Mental health startups have proliferated over the past few years, but few have focused on breakthrough treatments for the millions of patients who have tried and failed multiple other options. Osmind’s new funding will allow it to better help these patients, not with direct clinical care, but by supporting the providers and researchers already serving them.

Health AI, Unicorns, and Stretched Valuations

In recent years, digital health has been a hot-bed of innovation as companies tackle healthcare inefficiencies with new technology, but the rapidly climbing valuations are causing many to wonder: how much higher can they go?

Healthcare AI raises $8.5b in 2021.

According to a report from CBInsights, private healthcare AI companies have raised $8.5b through the first three quarters of the year, surpassing 2020’s full-year total of $6.6b.

  • Q3 2021 was healthcare AI’s strongest quarter ever ($3.2b raised across 149 rounds)
  • Top areas of focus include remote patient monitoring, decentralized clinical trials, and home diagnostics.
  • AI startups account for approximately 40% of year-to-date digital health funding

Unicorns are no longer endangered.

The term “unicorn” used to indicate that a young company was a successful outlier with a $1b+ valuation, but has recently been diluted as more startups earn the designation.

  • CBInsights now counts the total number of “unicorns” at 925 globally, including 13 healthcare AI companies that received the title just last quarter.
  • When the term unicorn was coined in 2013, there were fewer unicorns than there are “decacorns” with a $10b+ valuation today (45).
  • Devoted Health currently has the highest healthcare company valuation ($12.6b).

How much higher can valuations go?

Digital health companies scaled quickly during the pandemic by taking on outside investment to keep up with the surge in demand, which sent private valuations soaring. Many of these valuations were based on the size of the total addressable market, driven more by potential than current revenue. If these companies fail to capture share, or if health-tech adoption declines as the pandemic wanes, then these expectations might be hard to meet and we could start to see some moderation.

FemTec Health Emerges From Stealth, Acquires Birchbox

Former Livongo executive Dr. Kimon Angelides announced that FemTec Health, a technology-focused women’s health sciences company, is emerging from stealth with $38m in funding and the acquisition of subscription box pioneer Birchbox.

FemTec was originally formed in May 2020 with the aim of using technology to personalize care for women across the health continuum, from specialty and reproductive care to mental health and chronic condition management.

  • At launch, FemTec has over 10m members, two in-progress clinical trials, and 150 employees. Using a combination of AI and predictive analytics, it is looking to create a unified experience for its products and services across multiple channels, including D2C, B2B (employers, health plans), and subscriptions.
  • BiomeAI is the data analytics platform around which most of FemTec’s solutions revolve, which customizes care by using machine learning to transform data (consumer, genetic, microbiome, biometric) into personalized product and treatment recommendations.
  • Key acquisitions have helped FemTec launch with an established member base, such as digital cosmetics store Mira Beauty, social marketing platform Liquid Grid, and beauty box early mover Birchbox. FemTec announced plans to re-launch Birchbox later this year with a focus on BiomeAI-curated skin and healthcare products as opposed to beauty supplies.

The Takeaway

While FemTec is first and foremost a female health company, its acquisition history and BiomeAI recommendation platform show that it will likely focus more on consumer products than other competitors in the space. Female health is a giant market and one that’s been historically underserved, opening up plenty of runway for FemTec to meet unmet demand for personalized care.

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