Tech
Handspring Health wants to increase access to mental health care for kids. Here’s an exclusive look at the pitch deck it used to raise $6.2 million.
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- Handspring Health combines virtual care and in-person clinics to provide mental health care to kids.
- The startup just raised $6.2 million in a seed round led by Newark and NextView.
- Insider got an exclusive look at the pitch deck Handspring used to win over investors.
In an age where telehealth is disrupting traditional doctor visits, one New Jersey-based startup believes that in-person mental health care is still crucial for kids — and it just convinced a group of investors to back its brick-and-mortar idea.
Handspring Health, a behavioral healthcare startup focused on children and families, just closed a $6.2 million seed round led by Newark Venture Partners and NextView Ventures. 25madison Ventures, Arkitekt Ventures, and Quantum Angels also participated in the round.
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Cofounder and CEO Sahil Choudhry told Insider in an interview that the startup world is all-in on telehealth, but that’s not always the best way to treat children.
“A lot of therapy for children is having them play and observing. You can’t just do it on an iPad,” he said. “Virtual has a place, but a lot still has to happen in person. The experience and outcomes are better when you integrate both.”
That’s why Handspring is taking a hybrid approach: After an initial assessment, providers recommend a care plan of either virtual or in-person therapy for children. Patients are then paired up with Handspring’s on-staff therapists, who are paid an annual salary instead of per session.
To increase access, Handspring works directly with insurance carriers — that way, children can receive care regardless of where their parents work and the benefits those employers provide.
Joanne Lin, the principal at Newark who led Handspring’s funding round, told Insider that many mental health tech startups partnered with employers to offer services, which overlooked a large percentage of the patient population that doesn’t have employer-based healthcare.
Handspring’s model is moving the needle on accessibility, she said, by “focusing on in-network first, touching a lot of commercial plans and Medicaid.”
“They’re also thinking about hybrid access — not every patient and not every family is fully accessible to virtual care,” she said.
Currently, the startup is operating virtually in New Jersey for kids who are 10 and older. Handspring is planning to open its first in-person location this fall so it can start providing care for younger children and will follow a similar two-phase rollout as it expands, Choudhry explained.
Here’s the 15-page pitch deck Handspring used to impress investors and raise $6.2 million for its seed round.
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