InStride Health Raises Oversubscribed $30 Million Series B to Expand Access to Best-In-Class Specialty Treatment for Pediatric Anxiety and OCD
General Catalyst leads funding round joined by .406 Ventures, Valtruis, Mass General Brigham Ventures, and Hopelab Foundation to bolster insurance-based mental health program availability in new markets
BOSTON, Mass., – March 27, 2024 – InStride Health, an outpatient provider of specialty pediatric anxiety and OCD treatment, announced the closing of an oversubscribed $30M Series B funding round. General Catalyst led investors and was joined by previous investors .406 Ventures, Valtruis, Mass General Brigham Ventures, and Hopelab Foundation.
The new capital enables InStride Health to continue investing in clinical quality while expanding to new markets. This will allow InStride Health to further deliver on its mission of providing insurance-based access to best-in-class mental health care. With this investment, the company's total funding has now reached $56M.
“General Catalyst is proud to partner with the mission-driven founders of InStride who have dedicated their careers to solving the adolescent mental health crisis,” says Holly Maloney, Managing Director at General Catalyst. “We believe InStride is at the forefront of helping to democratize accessible, high-quality behavioral health care through its unique clinical model and innovative approach to delivering care, and we look forward to helping them grow,” added Candace Richardson, partner at General Catalyst.
Addressing Gaps in Mental Health Treatment
Nearly one-third of youth in the United States will struggle with an anxiety disorder and/or OCD by the age of 18. This presents significant life and economic challenges for kids, their families, and the healthcare system. Providers that offer specialty care for these conditions are in short supply, often have more than six-month waitlists, and rarely accept insurance.
InStride Health accepts most major insurance plans in the states it serves, and treatment typically begins within 1 to 4 weeks of application approval–making top-tier care affordable and accessible to more young people in need. Its evidence-based care model is grounded in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), with an emphasis on Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). The clinical foundation of InStride Health is based on a decade of work by its co-founders, Mona Potter, MD and Kathryn Boger, PhD, ABPP, while at McLean Hospital, the #1 psychiatric hospital according to the 2023-24 U.S. News & World Report “Best Hospitals” survey.
“As a clinician and a parent, I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to take on the broken pediatric mental health system through our work at InStride. We’re solving a complex problem–one that requires a diverse, smart, dedicated team driven by purpose and mission–and that is the team we have been so fortunate to build,” says Dr. Potter, Chief Medical Officer and co-founder of InStride Health.
Incorporating Care into Everyday Life
The multidisciplinary care teams at InStride Health include a psychiatrist, therapist, and exposure coach, who work together throughout treatment. Unlike traditional clinical settings, InStride Health takes care out of the office, helping patients build and practice skills in the environments where their individual fears and anxieties are most present. This real-time, real-world approach accelerates learning and builds resilience.
Understanding that to best care for and support the patient, they must mobilize their community; the InStride Health team develops close, collaborative partnerships with schools, physicians, and referring providers.
Manuela Villa, PhD, a referring clinician from Boston Children’s Hospital, describes the power of this approach, saying, “InStride’s provision of innovative, evidence-based care and its ability to foster strategic partnerships has allowed us to work efficiently and collaboratively in the treatment of children and adolescents struggling with anxiety and OCD as well as complex medical presentations. I’ve referred many patients to the InStride team because they truly go above and beyond to ensure that all aspects of patient care are addressed, and their unique approach results in excellent patient outcomes and high levels of patient satisfaction.”
Delivering Lasting Results
InStride Health treatment is designed to be time-bound. Each personalized care plan lasts four months to one year, helping patients and their families manage anxiety and focus on building the habits and self-reliance that will prepare them for graduation from the program. Measurement-Based Care (MBC) practices ensure transparency in outcomes and data-driven treatment decisions. The outcomes are equivalent to those in top-ranked academic hospital programs; patients exhibit highly significant reductions in anxiety, functional impairment, and depression, and parents exhibit highly significant reductions in family accommodation and caregiver strain as a result of treatment, with large effect sizes across the board.
“We’re on a mission to help kids, teens, and young adults with anxiety and OCD. We aim to expand our specialty clinical services to provide the same care and accessibility we’d want for our loved ones. Thanks to the dedication of our amazing team, partners, and investors, we are thrilled to continue to expand our supportive ecosystem for the kids and families we serve,” says John Voith, Co-founder and CEO of InStride Health.
Learn more about InStride Health at https://www.instride.health/
ABOUT INSTRIDE HEALTH
InStride Health provides specialty outpatient care for pediatric Anxiety and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and related presentations. Co-founded by Harvard-trained clinicians from McLean Hospital, the InStride Health care model is grounded in evidence-based treatments: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) with an emphasis on Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). A dedicated team of a psychiatrist, therapist, and an exposure coach are paired with each child to provide real-time support using everyday tools like text and a video- and chat-enabled mobile application. InStride Health accepts most major insurance plans in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island, with Maine coming soon.
ABOUT GENERAL CATALYST
General Catalyst is a venture capital firm that invests in powerful, positive change that endures — for our entrepreneurs, our investors, our people, and society. We support founders with a long-term view who challenge the status quo, partnering with them from seed to growth stage and beyond to build companies that withstand the test of time. With offices in San Francisco, Palo Alto, New York City, Berlin and Boston, the firm has helped support the growth of businesses such as Airbnb, Deliveroo, Guild, Gusto, Hubspot, Illumio, Lemonade, Livongo, Oscar, Samsara, Snap, Stripe, and Warby Parker.
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