Virtual speech-language startup Expressable has raised $28.2 million in a Series B round.
The Austin, Texas-based company has raised a total of $47.7 million, according to Crunchbase. It announced Tuesday that the funding will expand the company’s tech platform, pay for more staff speech-language pathologists and fuel its sales process with health plans and provider organizations.
Global investment firm HarbourVest Partners led the round. Digitalis Ventures and existing investors F-Prime Capital and Lerer Hippeau also participated, according to a news release.
“Speech therapy has transformational impacts on a child’s life, yet too many children today are left severely underserved risking delayed outcomes and cost-intensive care,” Expressable President and Chief Clinical Officer Leanne Sherred said in the release.
Expressable was founded in 2020. It uses a family-centered approach for speech therapy to provide care as a part of patients’ daily lives. It is accessible in all states. The company has partnered with “hundreds” of health plans, which include Medicaid plans.
Some issues the platform addresses are aphasia, autism spectrum disorder, cognitive communication disorders, lisps and gender-affirming voice training.
“Generating better outcomes through their novel care model is a win-win for patients, payers, and providers that aligns incentives and addresses disparities in access,” Michael Guiness, principal at HarbourVest, said in the release.
Speech therapy is often an adjunct to applied behavior analysis (ABA) to aid in advancing communication impairments using verbal and nonverbal communication methods. This care modality can be compelling enough for large autism therapy providers to invest in acquiring companies that specialize in it.
Speech-language pathology is a fast-growing profession and is projected to grow much faster than average than other professions, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
