Feel Therapeutics Raises $4.5M and Launches Feel to Expand Access to Mental Health Care and Provide On-Time Interventions to 500 Million People Living with Mental Health Issues Around the World
Feel program combines its proprietary Feel Emotion Sensor and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to quantify a person’s emotional state for the very first time, and deliver 24/7/365 mental health support to those in need
San Francisco, CA, October 10, 2019 — Feel Therapeutics, Inc., a company developing biomarkers and digital therapeutics for mental health, today announced it has raised $4.5 million in seed funding led by Felicis Ventures, with participation from Anthemis Exponential Ventures, and SOSV. The company combines its proprietary emotion sensing technology with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to bring a data-driven approach to the field of mental health for the very first time, while providing real-time interventions and care to those in need of emotional and mental health support. The latest investment, which brings the total raised to date to $6.3 million, will enable Feel to expand access to its Feel program through partnerships with health plans, life insurance providers, employers, and health systems.
Mental health is one of the most urgent areas of focus for the healthcare industry, and insurance providers are taking a leading role in bringing solutions to the market. Feel recently partnered with one of the largest health plans in California, as well as a large health and life insurer in Europe, to significantly expand access, reduce costs, and improve outcomes and quality of life for those in need of mental health support and care.
Feel helps health plans and employers improve the emotional health of their members and employees, while significantly reducing the cost of medical expenses and productivity losses due to mental health. Individuals suffering from mental health issues make six times more emergency room visits than the general population, and submit two to four times as many medical claims which translates to an additional $9,000 per year in added medical expenses.
“For decades, healthcare providers have been able to use objective data to measure and track all types of physical disorders, yet there has been no such solution for mental health to improve clinical effectiveness. Historically, mental healthcare is only provided at the therapist’s office during periodic check-ins and has relied on patient questionnaires,” said George Eleftheriou, co-founder and CEO of Feel. “We envision a world where technology understands when someone is going through a depressive phase or panic attack, and provides support in their time of need so no one has to suffer alone ever again.”
Because Feel constantly monitors a person’s emotional state, it is able to detect emotional changes and deploy on-time interventions faster than any other solution available, preventing visits to the ER. At the same time, Feel therapists receive continuous data about their patients’ emotional state, so when they see patients, they already know what is going on and can be up to four times more efficient in treating the issue.
Today is World Mental Health Day, and according to the World Health Organization, nearly half a billion people globally suffer from a mental condition and diagnoses are on the rise in every country. One in five people in the US are living with anxiety and depression, and timely access to support is often a challenge, not only in rural or low-income communities, but also in large city environments. Despite surging demand, mental health support services are in short supply, with waiting times to see a therapist often reaching up to four months.
“The current wave of digital mental health apps has improved access to meditation and sleep support but innovation in the treatment of medical conditions including anxiety and depression has been limited,” said Victoria Treyger, general partner at Felicis Ventures. “Feel is exciting because it is the first application of technology to dramatically increase access to mental health treatment for depression or anxiety. Both employers and insurers have been craving a solution like this to help tackle the mental health crisis that impacts job performance, morale, and overall well-being.”
The company pairs evidence-based techniques with its Feel Emotion Sensor, which uses the science of affective computing to detect changes in the emotional state of a person based on their physiological response to different stimuli.
The Feel program includes:
Feel was founded in 2015 by Eleftheriou and CTO Haris Tsirmpas to eliminate suffering from mental health disorders through the use of objective data and on-time interventions. Both founders have battled with mental health issues, and built Feel based on their own experiences and shared technical expertise. Eleftheriou is a former management consultant, having worked at Cisco and McKinsey. He has a master’s in management science & engineering from Columbia. Tsirmpas has a PhD in biomedical engineering from the National Technical University of Athens and has written 27 publications on the area.
Feel Therapeutics, Inc. is developing Digital Biomarkers and Therapeutics to bring objective data and measurement in the way we diagnose, manage, and care for Mental Health. The company is backed by top-tier investors (Felicis, Anthemis, SOSV) and has partnerships with large pharmaceutical companies to develop novel digital biomarkers and bring digital health solutions to market as standalone programs or alongside medications. Feel Therapeutics is headquartered in San Francisco, with additional offices in Europe. For more information, visit http://www.feeltherapeutics.com or contact us at info@feeltherapeutics.com.
