Pediatric teletherapy provider DotCom Therapy has raised $13 million in Series A funding.
New Capital Partners led the financing round, with participation from LRVHealth and OSF Ventures.
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DotCom Therapy provides mental health, behavioral, speech and occupational therapy to children across the country through a virtual therapy platform. It partners with providers and schools to deliver its services.
The Madison, Wisconsin-based company’s goal is to expand access to therapy for kids. Nearly one in five children have a mental, emotional or behavioral disorder, such as anxiety or depression, and only about 20% of them get help from a qualified provider, according to data from the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control.
“I saw the gap that existed between the number of qualified therapists and the number of children who needed help, and I thought teletherapy was a great way to help close that gap,” said Rachel Robinson, founder and president of DotCom Therapy, in an email.
At Robinson’s previous workplace, a neurology clinic, there was a four-to five-month waitlist to see a therapist, and some patients traveled an hour or two for each visit.
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“These factors placed a lot of strain on a family and even made it impossible for some families to get their children the help they needed,” she said.
This led Robinson to found DotCom Therapy in 2015. Today, the company provides teletherapy services for more than 400 schools and health systems across 38 states.
With the newly raised funds, DotCom Therapy plans to expand and establish a larger presence with providers and payers.
Robinson believes the investors that participated in DotCom Therapy’s Series A funding round will help the company grow its presence.
“New Capital Partners has great healthcare experience, specifically in telehealth, since it was the first institutional investor in Teledoc,” she said. “OSF Ventures is the venture arm of OSF Healthcare, a health system in Illinois and Michigan. And LRVHealth is a firm whose investors are all strategic partners, mostly health systems from across the country.”
There are several telehealth companies providing access to therapy in the market today, especially after teletherapy use skyrocketed amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
DotCom Therapy faces competition from larger companies like Amwell and Talkspace, “but these companies are focused on treating adults,” Robinson said. “Working with children requires a very different skillset and it’s where we focus exclusively.”
Since its inception, DotCom Therapy has raised $14 million. Robinson declined to disclose its valuation.
Photo: Alisa Zahoruiko, Getty Images