Cognito plans to expand its mental health services across Canada this year.
Victoria-based Cognito Health has secured C$2 million in seed funding for its all-in-one virtual mental health care platform.
“We are not just envisioning a future where effective mental health treatment is timely and affordable, we are actively building it.”
– Armon Arani, Cognito CEO
The all-equity seed round closed last November with funding from StandUp Ventures, Graphite Ventures, Spring Impact Capital, Simplex Ventures, and Garage Capital, which led the company’s pre-seed funding.
Cognito’s platform, currently available only in British Columbia (BC), provides users with a single point of access for immediate mental health treatment, combining cognitive behavioral therapy and medication access support with integrated care teams. is intended to provide. Cognito focuses on treating anxiety, depression, and insomnia and costs $129 per month, while ADHD treatment costs $169 per month.
“Cognito’s approach blends human and digital support in a scalable, patient-centric delivery model that addresses today’s mental health access challenges,” said Graham Day, managing partner at Spring Impact Capital, in a statement. It could be useful.” “As impact investors, we are excited to help measure outcomes as Cognito expands access to tens of thousands of Canadians in need.”
Cognito co-founder and CEO Armon Arani said the startup plans to use the funding to hire staff, invest in software and support operations in Ontario. This round brings Cognito’s total funding to $3.8 million.
Alani founded the startup in 2021 with former CEO Jason Krige, psychologist Gillian Roberts, consultant physician Dr. Marlene Muller, and medical director Dr. François Muller. According to LinkedIn, Krige will step down from his CEO role in December 2022 and is currently leading a pharmacy chain in British Columbia.
Related: Cognito Health secures $1.1 million to expand mental health services across Canada
In March 2022, Cognito raised $1.1 million in pre-seed funding with support from Shopify co-founder Scott Lake and Tiny co-founder Andrew Wilkinson. Cognito said it plans to use the funding to expand across Canada, but two years later, its platform is still only available in British Columbia. Cognito plans to expand its mental health services across Canada this year.
Alani told Betakit that since the last funding round, the company has doubled its team and delivered treatments to 470 percent more customers.
Cognito announced that it has been selected by British Columbia’s Vancouver Island Health Authority as a mental health treatment partner for Vancouver Island in 2022. Through this partnership, Island Health will refer patients to Cognito and cover all costs. Alani said Cognito is considering adding more similar partnerships in the future.
Alani said in a statement that expanding services across Canada is a “leapfrog” in access to mental health care.
“We’re not just envisioning a future where effective mental health treatment is timely and affordable, we’re actively building it,” Alani said.
Feature image courtesy of Cognito.
