Digital mental health startup Seven Starling has raised $12.6 million in funding and is seeking an additional $1.7 million to complete the round, according to an SEC filing.
New York City-based Seven Starling provides virtual mental health services to women on the parenthood journey. Its offerings include therapy, peer support and medication as needed. The $12.6 million raise was a combination of equity and shares and warrants.
The provider caters to adults who are experiencing anxiety, depression or trauma while navigating pregnancy, postpartum, early parenthood, fertility processes, pregnancy losses, or abortion. People who have a previous history of schizophrenia, psychosis or bipolar disorder are not eligible for treatment.
Seven Starling raised $2.9 million in seed funding in a round led by Pear VC, Expa and Magnify Ventures in 2021.
“Technology innovation in maternal care and parenting has long been overlooked and underfunded, but that’s starting to change,” Julie Wroblewski, co-founder and managing partner of Magnify Ventures, said in a statement after the company closed its seed funding round. “Seven Starling is a leader in a growing field of innovation that will address long-standing, costly pain points in the pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting journey that have been exacerbated and highlighted by the pandemic.”
The company charges a monthly membership fee of $20 for people with in-network insurance, not including the cost of co-pays for clinical services. Memberships include two individual therapy sessions and two group therapy sessions per month, as well as a library of interactive in-app exercises, a dedicated member advocate and monthly progress monitoring.
Seven Starling accepts most commercial insurance plans, including Aetna, Anthem, United Healthcare, Cigna and BlueCross BlueShield.
For cash-pay patients, the monthly cost jumps to $340.
The co-founder and CEO of Seven Starling, Tina Keshani, is a staff member of the Task Force on Maternal Mental Health. The task force recently released a national strategy to improve maternal mental health care, aligning with a broader federal focus on perinatal health following the 2022 declaration of a maternal health crisis.
“Addressing the maternal mental health crisis is a top priority for the Biden-Harris Administration,” The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement about the task force’s strategy. “Many of these tragic deaths can be prevented by eliminating health disparities and understanding the impact of mental health during pregnancy and in the first months as a parent.”
Lawmakers are also narrowing in on maternal behavioral health. A new piece of legislation called the “Mental Health and Making Access More Affordable (MAMA) Act” was recently introduced. If passed, the bill would require health plans to provide no-cost behavioral health services to perinatal people.
The behavioral health industry has also experienced an uptick in initiatives focusing on perinatal health, from FDA-approved prescription therapeutics to the development of personalized treatment pathways.
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