All-In-One Therapist Accounting Platform Heard Technologies Lands $10M Investment

Digital mental health startup Heard Technologies Inc. has secured $10 million in Series A funding, according to the company’s CEO.

First reported in Axios Pro, the San Francisco-based bookkeeping and tax help software and service provider specializing in helping therapists manage their own offices more efficiently.

The company provides solo providers and group practices software and access to financial professionals for a monthly subscription fee. Some features include automatic income and expense imports, automated accounting, quarterly meetings with financial pros to discuss taxes, and payroll management, according to the company’s website.

“Our target audience is any therapist who’s operating as a 1099 or if they fully own a private practice,” Heard Technologies CEO and Co-Founder Andrew Riesen told Behavioral Health Business, adding this could include small group practices.

Monthly fees are $149 and $249 for solo practitioners and group practices, respectively.

For an added cost, Heard Technologies will connect with the human resources platform Gusto to handle other payroll and tax functions.

Heard Technologies raised $1.3 million in a seed round in 2021, according to data from crunchbase.com.

Riesen said that the company plans to hire executives that have experience scaling companies, improving its user interfaces and building in new financial back-office products for therapists.

The next major priority is launching an embedded payroll system in Heard Technologies software. It is presently provided by Gusto.

Riesen co-founded the company with Victoria Li in September 2019 as a referral network for therapists with full caseloads to connect patients to therapists taking new patients, Riesen said.

The company pivoted away from that service in favor of an approach that Li and Riesen believed would enhance therapists’ administrative capabilities. “Hours and hours” of consults with the network of therapists that Heard Technologies established in its early days helped to inform the pivot, Riesen said.

“That sort of customer discovery is what led to where we are today,” Riesen said, adding that it gave the company specific insights on “how painful it is to set up a new business, to figure out how to pay yourself, figure out how to pay others in your practice and also get a handle on paying your taxes.”

San Francisco-based early-stage investor Footwork VC led the round. Founders Co-Op and Act One Ventures joined the round along with eight individual investors.

Other companies have won over investors with products meant to ease the administrative burden on therapists.

New York City-based Headway has raised about $100.5 million for its tech platform that helps patients find therapists that take insurance (many don’t) and helps therapists get paid. Alma, Also based in New York City and incorporated as Arlozorov9 Inc., has raised $90.5 million to also improve access to in-network care and provide services to support therapists.

Heard Technologies has relationships with Alma, Spring Health and Grow Therapy who rely on contracting with therapists to provide mental health services: The company’s services are “supportive” to the therapists that take on contract work, Riesen said.

Eleos Health, which has offices in Boston and Tel Aviv, Israel, raised $20 million in Series A funding. The company seeks to automate certain administrative aspects of therapist practices by using AI and voice-based technologies.