The drumbeat of funding into digital mental health startups continues. The latest company to raise funds, Ginger, lets users text mental health coaches or schedule a video visit with a therapist. The startup raised $100 million in a series E funding round led by Blackstone Growth — a growth equity fund recently launched by Blackstone. Ram Jagannath, global head of healthcare for Blackstone Growth, will also join its board of directors.
Like its peers, Ginger has seen an increase in users in the last year, as companies scrambled to boost their mental health benefits and more people became accustomed to virtual care.
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Ginger has added about 300 new clients in the last year, CEO Russell Glass wrote in an emailed statement. Some of its users include Delta Airlines, Domino’s and Sephora. A smaller number of health plans, roughly 30, also offer its services as a covered benefit. Ginger didn’t name them, but Kaiser Permanente Ventures is an investor in the company.
The startup has also tripled its revenue and its headcount in the last year. It currently has job postings for several full-time therapists across the U.S., as well as a psychiatrist and a handful of coaches.
More than half of Ginger’s clients opted to shift to a different type of payment model it began offering in the last year. For a fixed fee, they pay for employees and their dependents to be able to access the platform, including self-guided exercises, coaching, and a limited number of therapy and psychiatry visits.
With the new funds, Ginger plans to expand its partnerships with companies and health plans whose offices extend overseas. The company also plans to work with government payers and nonprofits to reach patients that otherwise wouldn’t be able to access its services.
To date, Ginger has raised more than $220 million. Meanwhile, competitors Lyra Health, and Modern Health, which are taking a similar approach to mental health benefits, have also recently raised significant funding rounds.
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