How tech startups are transforming mental health

Our mental health is just as important as our physical health and is a critical component of our overall wellness. Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being and affects how we think, feel and act. It is the foundation of our emotions and self-esteem and is central to our relationships, personal well-being, and our contribution to our community. Taking care of our mental health is important at each stage of life, from childhood and adolescence, throughout adulthood. As investors, we’ve seen a number of tech startups building products and tools to help improve mental health conditions and well-being.

A Growing Crisis

It is important to note that a person’s mental health can change over time, and there is no single cause for mental illness. A number of factors, including adverse life experiences, ongoing and chronic medical conditions, poor nutrition, biological factors, the use of alcohol and recreational drugs, and others can contribute to increased risk for mental illness. Situations can be linked to poor mental health outcomes, such as isolation, bereavement, and job and income loss.

Flawed Infrastructure

COVID-19

Tech Innovation

As VCs, we’ve seen a lot of positive momentum in the mental health space. Startups are developing a number of products and services to help diagnose and treat behavioral health conditions, ranging from artificial and machine learning tools for diagnostics, on-demand coaching and therapy, mood tracking services, meditation apps, and cognitive behavioral therapy and monitoring. We expect to see new mental health products in 2021 that target younger generations, build solutions for marginalized communities, offer personalized and preventative care, leverage deep tech and AI, support student communities, embedded gamified tools and products, and include remote patient monitoring and testing. We also have noticed a number of general digital health startups expand their product offering into mental health. While the mental health direct-to-consumer marketplace has largely been focused on telehealth and mindfulness apps, and many startups that began D2C are also now creating an enterprise division that sells to businesses, allowing employers to leverage mobile technology platforms and deliver mental health benefits to their employees.

A few advantages of mobile-based mental health products include:

The Limitations of Mental Health Tech

There are also a number of concerns that software investors and founders must take into consideration when funding and building new products:

Moving Forward

We are excited to see that tech has created a number of new opportunities and innovations in behavioral health access and treatment, as more attention and resources are devoted to the mental health space. In the future, there will be continued demand for mental health tech services in the aftermath of COVID-19 and in coming years. However, VC-backed startups won’t alone solve the complicated, systemic problems of poor insurance coverage, administrative roadblocks, a national shortage of mental health providers, the high costs of care, and inequitable access to mental healthcare. Meaningful change depends not only on tech innovation but also on policy, prevention, and research.

Have an Idea? We would love to speak to you. We invest early in ideas and people that are looking to build mission-driven products and drive actionable social impact. Get in touch at info@knightsgateventures.com

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