Funding Roundup: Connections Scores $30M in Growth Funding; Tele-health SUD Treatment Company Raises $16M

Crisis stabilization company raises $30M in growth funding

Connections Health Solutions, a Phoenix-based crisis stabilization company, has raised $30 million in growth financing from the private equity firm Heritage Group. The funding will help fuel the national expansion of Connections’ behavioral health crisis services model, the company said.

Connections operates two Arizona centers — one in Phoenix and the other in Tucson — which provide crisis and outpatient services for individuals experiencing acute episodes related to mental health conditions and substance use disorders (SUDs). Connections bills the two centers as the largest behavioral health facilities in the nation.

The centers offer services 24/7, and the company partners with various health care entities to coordinate holistic patient care. Those entities include national and regional health plans; integrated primary care and behavioral health medical homes; emergency departments; hospitals; law enforcement agencies; and providers of community-based resources.

“Connections has been committed to value-based care since its inception,” Connections CEO Colin LeClair said in a press release announcing the funding. “Our innovative, clinical model was designed to improve access, and reduce hospital admission rates and total cost of care. We’ve long been the gold standard for patient-centered behavioral healthcare, and we’re eager to lead the industry into a new era of value-based payment innovation.”

Connections was founded in 2009 by psychiatrists Chris Carson and Robert Williamson, who presently serve as the company’s board chairman and executive advisor, respectively.

Tele-SUD treatment company nets $16M in Series A

Lucid Lane — a virtual provider of opioid prescription management and SUD treatment services — has landed $16 million in Series A funding.

The round was led by Accel, with participation from Battery Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, Morado Ventures and strategic angel investors. Battery Ventures also provided seed funding to Lucid Lane in May 2020, according to fundraising tracking site Crunchbase. 

Lucid Lane was founded in 2017 and is based in Los Altos, California. The company focuses on helping those who have developed medication addictions following major medical procedures or who need help tapering their medication use during their recovery.

Services are available in 35 states and are provided via messaging, video and phone, with both individual and group therapy services available. Lucid Lane accepts most major commercial insurances as well as Medicare. Currently, the company only accepts Medicaid patients in Georgia.

“Medication dependent patients desperately want help, whether it’s to overcome substance dependence, manage chronic pain or improve mental health, but few good options exist that offer the specific, personalized treatment they need,” Adnan Asar, co-founder and CEO of Lucid Lane, said in a press release announcing the funding.

Asar was inspired to open Lucid Lane after his wife struggled with medication dependence following her cancer treatment.

“Doctors are equally frustrated because they lack the time, training and capabilities to adequately assist their patients on a daily basis, managing their care as they taper medication usage,” he said. “We’ve solved these issues with our unique, comprehensive telehealth platform and by working as collaborators with physicians rather than vendors. There is never a cost for doctors, empowering them to provide the best care possible to their patients.”

In addition to the funding news, Lucid Lane announced that Accel Partner Eric Wolford is joining its board of directors.

New sleep management app scores funding from Sequoia Capital

Revery, which is developing a wellness app to help individuals struggling with insomnia, has raised $2 million in pre-seed funding.

Surge, an accelerator program operated by Sequoia Capital for early stage startups in India and Southeast Asia, led the funding round.

Long one of the world’s most influential venture capital firms, Menlo Park, California-based Sequoia has made early stage investments in a number of international tech powerhouses over the years, such as Apple, Google, Oracle, PayPal and Zoom. Revery’s pre-seed funding round also included participation from other firms such as GGV Capital, Pascal Capital and zVentures, along with individual investors.

Revery’s beta mode app combines mobile gaming techniques with cognitive behavioral therapy to treat insomnia. The company plans to launch the app in the U.S. later this year, with other mental health services to follow, according to multiple media reports.

The company was founded in March by Tammie Siew and Khoa Tran.

Siew, who studied at Cornell, has worked for Sequoia Capital in India, as well as the Boston Consulting Group. Meanwhile, Tran — who studied at UCLA — has worked at Samsung and Google.

“[Sleep] has such a strong correlation with mental health and we’re leveraging protocols, cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, that’s robust and have been tried and tested for 30 years,” Siew told the startup news site TechCrunch. “That is the first indication, but the goal is to build multiple games for other wellness indications as well.”