Mental health startup Headlight, formerly Sokya Health, raised $18 million in new funding. It also named Geoff Swindle, former chief business officer of PillPack and Amazon Pharmacy, its new CEO. 

The new venture funding will help to fuel expansion efforts, including entering new markets and onboarding additional clinicians at the startup.

San Diego, California-based Headlight offers in-person or virtual mental health appointments and has locations in Alaska, California, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, Texas and Washington.

The funds will be used to help the company expand into new states and hire hundreds of new therapists by 2025. Matrix and EPIC Ventures led the funding round.

“There are very few entrepreneurs that have scaled healthcare services businesses while maintaining that quality bar to the extent that Geoff has,” TJ Parker, general partner at Matrix, said about the new CEO in a statement. “It’s very easy for me as an investor and someone that’s worked with Geoff for a long time, to make the bet that the highest quality care will ultimately win in this category.”

Headlight positions itself as a tech-forward, clinician-centric company, employing a full-time, W-2 clinician base.

The company’s services include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and couples therapy. More than 90% of its clients are in-network, according to the company’s site. It accepts insurers, including UnitedHealthcare, Magellan Health, Medicare, Optum and Humana. 

Headlight was co-founded by the company’s current president, Manish Sheth, who served as CEO until Jan. 2023.

“As an actively practicing clinical psychiatrist, I know patients want to connect with their clinicians and feel understood on a personal level,” Sheth said in a statement. “Our goal at Headlight is to make it as simple as possible for both clinicians and patients to form those connections.”

Headlight joins other freshly-funded mental health companies like video game-enabled mental health company Hero Journey Club, which landed $14.6 million in Oct. of 2023, and digital mental health startup Tava Health, which raised $16 million in Jan. of 2024. 

Venture capital deals are gaining momentum in the behavioral health industry, with more on the horizon for 2024, and mental health was among the most active segments of behavioral health for dealmaking in Q4 of 2023.