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Virtual trauma therapy provider Nema Health raised $4.1 million in seed funding, CEO Sofia Noori tells Erin exclusively.

Why it matters: Despite the existence of effective treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder, most people with the condition go untreated due to high therapy costs and provider shortages.

Details: Optum Ventures and .406 Ventures led the round.

GreyMatter Capital and several angel investors participated.

Funds will go to building out the company's infrastructure, serving payer contracts, and hiring additional providers.

Noori expects Nema to raise a Series A late next year.

What they're saying: "Trauma is more prevalent than the existing narrative around PTSD would have you believe, and therefore treatment should be equally prevalent," says .406 Ventures partner and Nema investor Payal Agrawal Divakaran.

Be smart: PTSD affects an estimated 7 or 8 people out of every 100. Anyone who survived a distressing event or chronic trauma can experience the disorder, as well as those living or serving in conflict zones.

How it works: Nema uses an entirely virtual intensive care model based on cognitive processing therapy.

After evaluation, patients are matched with a care team that includes a therapist, peer mentor (who's completed Nema's program), case manager, and psychiatrist (when medication is involved).

Patients meet with Nema's therapists three to five times a week. Therapists, who are all licensed mental health professionals with master's degrees or higher, track patients' symptoms over time using standard PTSD symptom scales to evaluate their progress.

The company is in-network with insurers including UnitedHealthcare, Optum, and Oxford Health Plans, among others, and offers its services in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York

Zoom in: CPT is recommended as a first-line treatment in all major PTSD treatment guidelines.

Numerous studies have demonstrated CPT's effectiveness in treating trauma in a diverse range of populations, including veterans and those with multiple forms of mental illness.

"If you want to do trauma work, we want to be thought of as the best place to do it," says Noori.

The backstory: A Yale-trained psychiatrist, Noori experienced PTSD early on in life as an assault survivor and the child of survivors of the Vietnam War.

Her personal and professional experiences drove her into psychiatry and rape crisis counseling and, eventually, spurred her to found Nema.

"As a resident, you rotate through the VA and safety net clinics and it is stark, the lack of services for trauma," Noori recalls.

State of play: Nema is among a nascent crop of companies homing in on severe forms of the condition, including major depressive disorder and PTSD.

Stella, a provider of treatments for severe mental illness including PTSD, in May raised $7 million in undesignated funding.

Author Health in June booked $115 million to support Medicare Advantage users with various forms of serious mental illness (SMI).

Firsthand in February collected $28.1 million to link people with SMI to care with the help of peer support specialists.

1 big thing: $4M seed for virtual trauma therapy

Illustration of a brain-shaped maze with the correct path highlighted.

Elucid, which provides AI-based imaging software for heart disease, raised $80 million in Series C funding, CEO Blake Richards tells Erin exclusively.

Why it's the BFD: In the U.S., heart disease is the leading cause of death, and cardiology care is the single largest driver of health care spending — giving developers of lower-cost and preventive interventions ample opportunity to innovate.

How it works: Boston-based Elucid offers FDA-cleared, noninvasive software to assess plaque in the arteries.

The company is also pursuing an indication for fractional flow reserve, which characterizes how severely the coronary arteries have been narrowed.

What they're saying: "Rather than sending patients to the [cardiac] cath[eterization] lab to have this procedure," Richards says, "we can assess their arteries with a noninvasive scan."

"My hope is this world of noninvasive imaging becomes really enabling for the cardiologist," says Elevage CEO Evan Melrose.

Be smart: Elucid has published several studies — including one it sponsored in the journal Radiology in 2017 — that found a high degree of correlation between its software analysis and an assessment based on real tissue.

The Radiology study concluded that the company's tools could "produce accurate quantification to enhance current clinical practice."

Details: Elevage Medical Technologies, a portfolio company of Patient Square Capital, led the round, with Melrose and senior adviser Kelly Huang joining Elucid's board.

Richards declined to say when the company would raise a Series C but said the current raise "should last us several years."

State of play: Funds are flowing to virtual care startups focused on heart conditions — particularly those leveraging artificial intelligence. For example...

Cleerly, a developer of a software overlay that adds AI to coronary CT scans, last July circulated $192 million in Series C financing.

Remote monitoring startup Story Health and cardiac arrest treatment developer Avive Solutions each raised $22 million in Series A funds last spring.

Cardiosense, a developer of wearable technology designed to identify heart disease, last December closed a $15.1 million Series A round.

2. The BFD: Elucid beats $80M Series C for heart imaging tech

Illustration of a heart with a barcode sticker on it.

Betterleave, a web-based platform that partners with organizations to improve end-of-life care, raised $2.4 million in funding, CEO Cara McCarty Abbott tells Aaron exclusively.

Why it matters: More than 30 million Americans are caring for an adult.

Details: The round was led by Chingona Ventures and included Bread and Butter Ventures, Vitalize VC, Wisdom Ventures Fund, and AARP.

Abbott said the company is generating revenue but declined to share specifics.

"Everything we do has to be measurable and we are operating with a balance of profitability and scale," she says.

How it works: The Austin, Texas-based company offers a comprehensive digital and clinical care solution.

On the consumer side, Betterleave provides info and data, deploys a playbook, is reactive and independent on the data given, and creates a personalized care journey, with access to a care team and mental health providers.

With a focus on grief and mental health, Betterleave offers personalized administrative and counseling services.

"There can be a care gap from pre-loss to post-loss and we provide support on both ends," Abbott says.

The company is in-network with Humana, Aetna, Cigna, United, BCBSTX, Oscar, and Medicare, and is in six states.

Zoom in: "Because we are a start-up, we have to have a plan for how to use funds and make sure that every decision we make, impacts our members and/or organizations, based on outcomes and ROI."

What's next: On the members' side, funds will go toward health assessments and measuring the digital check-ins.

"We also have expansion plans and should be in 20 states by the end of next year," she says.

The company is also working on partnering with Medicare Advantage groups, which is a growing population.

"We would like to hit some milestones and goals so that we can fundraise again around this time next year."

The bottom line: "We want to be the one to move the needle in terms of mental health and the intersection of grief and loss with clinical data."

3. Betterleave brings in $2.4M for bereavement care

Illustration of a tissue box filled with money instead of tissues.  

Want more health tech deals? Check out the Axios Pro Deals Tracker beta.

• Heali, a Los Angeles-based developer of food as medicine tools, raised $3m in seed funding led by Astanor Ventures. https://www.heali.com/

• Pathway, a Montreal-based provider of AI-driven clinical guidance tools, raised $5m in seed funding led by Yamaha Motor Ventures. https://www.pathway.md/ 

4. Deals' o the day

• Holly Procter, formerly an SVP at Clari, joined Incredible Health as its first chief revenue officer. https://axios.link/47l5pI4 

• Tom Cady left a post as general manager at Kareo to become VP of operations at CR BillMax. https://axios.link/3SyBKab

• Justin Wu, formerly SVP of operations at AbleTo, joined Two Chairs as COO, and Padma Lalwani, formerly VP of engineering at OpenGov, joined as VP of engineering. https://axios.link/3uaPuhi

• Jeff Park, formerly CEO of WellDyneRx, became president of Waltz Health. https://waltzhealth.com/

• Ashish Gupta left a post as CTO of Polymer Search to become CTO at Kain Capital. https://www.kaincap.com/

• Army Col. Cheryl Creamer joined Visory Health as chief clinical officer. https://www.visoryhealth.com/

5. It's Personnel

Nov. 6 — Prescription services giant Surescripts acquired ActiveRADAR, a company that identifies lower-cost medication alternatives, chief data officer Lynne Nowak told Erin exclusively.

Why it matters: Partially owned by two of the nation's largest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), Surescripts is acquiring ActiveRADAR a company focused on lowering prescription drug costs.

Nov. 7 — BioPhy, a company that helps enhance the outcomes of clinical trials, raised $4.5 million in pre-seed funding, CEO Dave Latshaw II told Aaron exclusively.

Why it matters: Clinical trials have only a 7.9% success rate, limiting the chances of curing, preventing, or earlier diagnosis of serious and deadly diseases.

Nov. 8 — Sheryl Sandberg's firm is now the lead investor in Cercle, a company focused on advancing infertility treatments for women, CEO Juan Carlos Riveiro told Aaron exclusively.

Why it matters: Infertility affects 1 in 6 people globally and access to providers and high costs are all deterring factors.

6. 🗞️ Catch up quick

Happy Friday Eve, Health Tech enthusiasts.

Situational awareness: As a programming note, we will be dark tomorrow in observance of Veterans Day.

🧗🏻 Erin went bouldering two days in a row at a local climbing gym and is hooked.

🥰 Thanks for reading, and extra thanks to newsletter editor George Moriarty and copy editor Mickey Meece. Please ask your colleagues, friends, and family to sign up.

November 09, 2023

1 big thing: $4M seed for virtual trauma therapy