Little Otter Raises $9.5M for Household Psychological Well being

Little Otter, a digital household psychological Health firm, has secured $9.5 million in strategic funding to broaden its attain with Medicaid and industrial insurance coverage, the corporate Health-nationwide”>introduced on Wednesday.

San Francisco-based Little Otter helps children as much as the age of 18 and their households, with a concentrate on children aged zero to 6. IT treats sufferers for quite a lot of wants, together with despair, anxiousness, self-harm, couple and marital battle and household relationships. The corporate provides remedy, psychiatry and father or mother teaching, and sufferers obtain tailor-made care plans, evaluation outcomes and progress studies. Little Otter at present operates in 15 states.

The $9.5 million fundraise included participation from Pivotal Ventures, Torch Capital, Springbank, CRV, Subsequent Legacy, G9, Gratitude Railroad and Carrie Walton Penner’s Fiore Ventures. Little Otter has raised greater than $36 million up to now.

“Right this moment’s younger folks face unprecedented challenges that demand a recent perspective on psychological healthcare,” stated Erin Harkless Moore, director of investments at Pivotal Ventures, in an announcement. “Little Otter stands out via its scientific excellence throughout all ranges of care from delicate to extreme, treating each younger sufferers and their households.”

The funding will assist Little Otter advance its AI-powered platform, which can “make IT even simpler to attach households with customized providers, rapidly triage sufferers, and ship digital whole-family care,” stated Rebecca Egger, co-founder and CEO of the corporate, in an electronic mail.

IT can even assist Little Otter scale to help extra Medicaid and industrial members. IT at present works with Independence Blue Cross, Florida Blue, AmeriHealth, Sana, Kaiser Permanente Northern California and Blue Cross and Blue Protect of Minnesota.

Digital psychological Health firms that concentrate on youth — like Little Otter — have gotten extra widespread and are gaining curiosity from traders. In 2023, funding in digital Health startups addressing youth psychological Health accounted for 34% of complete digital behavioral Health funding, up from 15% in 2018, in accordance with a current Health.pdf”>Rock Health report. And for good motive: greater than 21% of younger Individuals battle a psychological or behavioral Health dysfunction, and 53% of working dad and mom have missed work at the least as soon as a month because of their little one’s psychological Health, in accordance with the identical report.

Different digital firms supporting youth psychological Health embrace BeMe Health, InStride Health and Backpack. Whereas Egger didn’t point out these firms as opponents, she famous that Little Otter stands out for its concentrate on caring for kids underneath six. 

“Whereas different firms would possibly provide simply father or mother teaching for very younger kids or simply generalized psychological Health, we mix evidence-based care with a family-centered strategy, tailoring help to every household’s distinctive wants,” she declared.

The corporate has achieved some outcomes as effectively, offering greater than 56,000 care visits in 2024. About 85% of households see enhancements in six classes and 71% of youngsters expertise remission of signs after 12 classes, in accordance with the announcement.

Finally, Little Otter goals to “make psychological Health Care accessible, efficient, and tailor-made for households in all places,” Egger stated.

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