According to , approximately one in five adults in the United States experiences a mental illness each year. National Alliance on Mental Illness. However, almost a quarter of adults with mental illness do not receive treatment; mental health america report.
San Diego based HeadlightWhich announced Last week, it raised $18 million in Series A funding aimed at improving access to mental health services. The company also hired new executives, including CEO Jeff Swindle, who previously served as chief business officer at PillPack and Amazon Pharmacy.
Headlight (formerly known as Sokya Health) provides patient care both in-person and virtually in Alaska, California, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Texas and Washington. We offer talk therapy, medication, and nasal esketamine treatment (derived from ketamine). We treat a variety of mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, trauma, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Headlight is in network with most major insurance companies, including Aetna, Cigna, and UnitedHealthcare. All clinicians are W-2 full-time employees.
“Fundamentally, I think we’re in a mental health crisis in this country right now. Access is an issue. Affordability is an issue. The way we approach our markets, and our I think the difference is that we’re really leaning into the model of a full-time clinician who is a W-2 employee with benefits,” Swindle said. In an interview.
The $18 million Series A funding round was led by Matrix and EPIC Ventures. In total, the mental health company has raised about $24 million, Swindle said.
The funding will allow Headlight to expand into new markets and hire “hundreds” of therapists by 2025, according to a news release. The company also plans to invest in its own technology and products, Swindle added. He said he intends to bring some of the lessons learned from PillPack and Amazon Pharmacy into the mental health space.
“I think we’re going back to developing a customer experience that really simplifies access in the mental health space,” Swindle said. “Navigating that journey is very complex. People struggle, first, just to access it, and second, they struggle to know where to go and how to approach it.” Do you pay in cash or can you claim through your insurance? Leveraging our products, customer experience, and technology to truly simplify customer and customer interactions is a huge part of the need that exists in the market. I believe this will be resolved.”
He added that the company’s goal is to develop a brand that is “very consumer-focused” and follow performance metrics.
“There are many people in this field, but fundamentally I don’t believe that many of the big problems in mental health care have been solved,” Swindle said. “And I think that to really solve this problem, we’re going to need some creative thinking that looks at clinical protocols and ongoing processes of care. I think we also need to lean deeply into how we build the best customer experience for people who are trying to navigate their journey.”
Swindle did not name any of its competitors, but other companies in the mental health space include: headspace, spring health, eloquence and talk space.
Photo: SI Photography, Getty Images
