As part of its new $40 million capital infusion, New York City-based digital health provider Sword Health has announced the company’s first foray into the mental health space. The company is now valued at $4 billion – a valuation that has jumped by $1 billion from last June.
Until now, Sword Health has primarily offered digital-first physical therapy programs focused on pain management and prevention. Its launch of “Mind,” a new AI-powered mental health care model, integrates an AI therapist, a wearable device to detect depression and anxiety and PhD-level mental health clinicians to deliver 24/7 responsive care for patients.
Combining traditional talk therapy with physiological and contextual biopsychosocial factors that can be measured through the wearable interactions with the AI therapist and clinician care will capture a more “holistic” view of a patient’s life, including sleep, stress, relationships and environmental factors, allowing Sword Health to deliver individualized outcomes, according to the release.
“This funding is a milestone that allows us to deepen our foundational AI research and to accelerate our expansion into new healthcare verticals like mental health — a field still dominated by unscalable and ineffective models — bringing truly life-changing care to millions who struggle with mental health around the world, the same way we did it for millions with physical pain,” Virgilio Bento, founder and CEO of Sword Health stated in the news release.
What’s different from other virtual mental health providers is Sword Health’s commitment to a novel model where “organizations only pay when their people improve.” The specifics around what this looks like in practice are unclear. Behavioral Health Business did reach out to request clarification about this model and has yet to receive a response.
General Catalyst led the funding round with participation from Khosla Ventures, Comcast Ventures, Lince Capital, Oxy Capital, Armilar, Indico Capital and Shilling.
Sword Health’s last funding round was just over a year ago, in June 2024, when it announced $130 million in new financing as part of a series E round.
The fresh funding brings the ten-year-old company’s total raised to date to $380 million.
Bento, the company’s CEO, reportedly told TechCrunch that the company has plans to pursue an IPO by 2028.
Companies featured in this article:
