#57 What happened to the Mental Health startups of 2020-2022?

Hi friends,

From 2020 to 2022, 137 US mental health startups raised over $5.9 billion.

It was the greatest investment in mental health businesses we’ve ever seen.

But where are those companies today? Did those investments work out?

I’ve been (painstakingly) gathering data on these 137 businesses and, inspired by Halle Tecco’s article on the digital health unicorns of 2020 - 2022, I wanted to analyse exactly what’s happened to them all.

I must say, I indulged myself on this one - going deep into the fundraising data, trends and outcomes for this cohort. I just can’t resist a good chart!

Anyway, in today’s THR Pro article, I break down exactly what’s happened to the mental health startup class of the early 2020s.

We’ll look at:

• Where did these companies end up? How many are still operating, how many found an exit through acquisition, and how many have shut their doors?

• Who’s managed to raise again? Which companies secured follow-on funding? How long has it been since their last round, and what does that tell us about consolidation trends in the sector?

• Which parts of the industry held up best? We’ll dig into how each category performed - spoiler: it wasn’t a great time to be building a digital therapeutics company.

• And finally… what comes next? What do these outcomes tell us about the future potential of this cohort, the investment landscape, and where the next generation of winners might emerge?

Let’s get into it.

This article is for THR Pro members only