Lyra Health, a digital health startup that seeks to improve care coordination for mental health, has closed a $45 million Series B round three years after its launch, according to a company news release that coincided with the HLTH conference in Las Vegas. The funding will be used towards product development and to expand the number of therapists serving the business from its current level of 2,500.
The company, founded by former Genentech and Facebook CFO Dave Ebersman, provides its service as an employer benefit to support mental health, covering conditions such as depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. Among the companies it works with, which are listed on its website, are eBay, Uber, Lyft, and servicenow.
New investors include Tenaya Capital, Glynn Capital, Crown Ventures, and Casdin Capital. Existing investors that took part in the Series B included Greylock Partners, Venrock, and Providence Ventures. Coupled with the $35 million Lyra raised in 2015, it has raised more than $80 million to date.
The company has a few different ways to evaluate people who may need mental health support. It provides digital diagnostic tests for primary care providers. They are used to screen and assess patients identified as potentially in need behavioral health care. There’s also an analytical tool to identify people deemed most at risk and more easily refer them. It also has a few different ways users can access therapy such as in-person and via live video, coaching programs, and digital self-care apps.
Lyra Health’s goal of making behavioral health more accessible by reaching patients in their comfort zone is shared by a few different companies in this subsector of connected care. Talkspace, for example, recently added a chief medical officer Neil Leibowitz who said the company planned to expand into psychiatry. Pacifica Labs has expanded from a direct to consumer model to add resources for clinicians and planned to add telepsychiatry last year.
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