White Plains, New York-based substance use disorder provider Forge Health has secured $10 million in new funding.

The capital is part of a $21.5 million funding effort that has spanned two distinct efforts in 2022.

“We’re opening up new clinics, both in-person and virtual clinics alongside our partners — that’s accountable care organizations, payers as well as employers — to enhance the value-based care relationship we already have,” Forge Health CEO and Co-founder Eric Frieman told Behavioral Health Business.

Forge Health raised $11.5 million in convertible notes in April. Those notes converted along with the new $10 million raised in an equity round. The New York City-based venture capital firm HC9 Ventures led both rounds.

The latter round includes 31 investors and saw its first sale on Dec. 5, according to public documents.

Forge Health offers mental health and substance use disorder (SUD) treatment through a value-based care model. It uses multidisciplinary care teams and patient analytics to streamline care for patients with multiple comorbidities.

A study by Forge Health finds its model can reduce hospital admissions by 75% and emergency room use by 62%.

Forge Health has so far taken a judicious approach to its growth, focusing more on cementing its clinical quality practices before seeking scale, Frieman said.

“In this market … a lot of other companies really focused on growth over clinical quality and there’s a very big difference between the two,” Frieman said.

But now, the company is seeking scale with this latest funding round.

Frieman considers Forge Health more mature than a typical company beginning its Series A funding round. It has more than 150 employees, operates in eight states and holds several value-based care contracts.

The company launched in 2016 but didn’t seek growth capital until after it established its care model and found a degree of business success and stability.

Frieman said that the Series A round is not yet complete; other parties have come into the picture that will put its funding totals beyond $10 million. He did not venture a number of what he expects the round to total.

By the mid-point of 2023, Forge Health hopes to have 19 clinics. It lists locations in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia on its website.

There are a number of other venture-backed behavioral health providers that are founded around value-based care or have embraced it. Other examples include Waltham, Massachusetts-based Eleanor Health and Miami-based Brave Health.

Forge Health launched with seed funding from San Francisco-based venture capital firm Montage Ventures. It has since become one of the fastest-growing companies in America.

The Inc. 5000 list shows Forge Health’s revenue increased 800% from 2018 to 2022. It is ranked at No. 792 on the list.

The company has also deepened its executive leadership with the addition of Timothy Wentworth as Forge Health’s board chairman. He previously worked as the CEO of Evernorth, the health services arm of Cigna Corp. (NYSE: CI), and as the CEO of Express Scripts. HC9 Ventures connected the leaders of Forge Health with Wentworth. This development represents a maturation of the company, Frieman said.

“Getting someone like Tim to come on board is because we’ve been doing things successfully both from a business model and clinical model standpoint,” Frieman said. “The funding now comes in place so that we can continue to execute our strategy in a disciplined manner.”