Mental health startup NeuroFlow has raised $1.2 million in a round led by NJ JumpStart. Ben Franklin Technology Partners, Independence Blue Cross and Chestnut Street Ventures participated as well.
The Philadelphia company, which seeks to integrate behavioral health into the entire continuum of care, will use the financing to improve its tech products and add more employees by the end of this year.
When Investment Rhymes with Canada
Canada has a proud history of achievement in the areas of science and technology, and the field of biomanufacturing and life sciences is no exception.
The startup is still raising money. It expects to bring in a total of $1.5 million.
“We have momentum on our side, and so [we] anticipate closing the round in the beginning of Q4 2018,” NeuroFlow co-founder and CEO Chris Molaro said via email.
NeuroFlow’s platform lets providers assess and engage patients with the ultimate goal of supporting their mental health needs. Using the company’s tech, healthcare teams can administer questions to individuals, assign patient homework and send motivational emails and feedback.
Its primary products include EngageBH, which encourages behavioral health specialists to engage with patients, and IntegrateHealth, which helps bring behavioral health tech into non-mental health settings like primary care offices.
Back in 2016, Molaro and COO Adam Pardes founded the Philadelphia startup. Molaro elaborated a bit on what prompted the creation of NeuroFlow.
Prior to earning his MBA from Wharton, Molaro attended West Point and served in the U.S. Army. While in the military, he and his fellow soldiers found it challenging to maintain their mental strength.
“It was obvious that many of us [soldiers] would have benefited from therapy or integrating behavioral health into our physical health considerations,” he said. “Yet they were treated completely separately.”
This issue isn’t limited to those in the military, though — it impacts everyone, he added.
Molaro’s past experiences didn’t materialize into a plan to start a mental health startup right away. But he eventually met a few neuroscience and psychology professors, as well as Pardes, a bioengineering PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania. Together, the two founders sought to develop a solution focused on behavioral health.
In addition to raising capital, NeuroFlow was in the Smart Health Innovation Lab’s inaugural cohort of companies. The Lab is a collaborative effort between Penn Medicine Lancaster General, Capital Blue Cross, Aspire Ventures and Clio Health. By being in the 12-week program, NeuroFlow has been able to integrate its tools in a variety of care settings.
“[T]he last 12 weeks was important for us to learn the differences in selling to a large hospital versus a private practice,” Molaro said. “It also demonstrates that we have the capability to scale our technology to the level required to be a value-added asset in a hospital setting.”
Photo: ANDRZEJ WOJCICKI, Getty Images
