Afore Capital backs product-centric founders at the pre-seed stage exclusively. The investment team brings 16 years of founding product experience (Android and Twitter) and 7 years of institutional investing experience (Founder Collective and Foundation Capital). Their sweet spot is the ~$1M pre-seed round, where they can lead the round as an institutional investor alongside high value angels.

Afore Capital

Merus Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm founded by former M&A leaders at Google and Microsoft. Merus empowers ambitious teams building tomorrow’s industry-defining platforms. The firm partners with founders that possess unique industry and customer insights, an unwavering commitment to product innovation, and a relentless focus on execution.

Merus Capital

Y Combinator is a startup accelerator that provides funding and mentorship to early-stage companies. It offers a program where startups receive guidance from experienced entrepreneurs and investors. The organization helps founders in their business models and develop their products. Y Combinator serves industries such as technology, healthcare, and finance.

Y Combinator

Social Capital is a Menlo Park-based investment firm whose mission is to advance humanity by solving the world’s hardest problems. By harnessing technology to address core human needs, they aim to drive a bottom-up redistribution of power, capital and opportunity. To achieve this, they're building a new kind of company and a platform for empowering brilliant entrepreneurs and breakthrough products. Founded in 2011, the company is based in Menlo Park, California, United States.

Social Capital

Precursor Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on pre-seed and seed investments in North America. The firm focuses on investments in B2B and B2C software applications and hardware. Precursor Ventures has adopted the Diversity Term Sheet Rider.

Precursor Ventures

MGV is an early-stage venture capital fund that focuses on opportunistic investments in North America, Latin America, and Israel. The fund backs a limited number of founders per year in order to provide the highest level of counsel and advocacy. MGV brings unmatched, scalable sales support with genuine mentorship and guidance to early-stage startups, with the unique-to-seed intention that the portfolio companies realize their full potential. MGV looks for founders with infinite drive, humility, the capacity for leadership, and most importantly, the energy that motivates the people around them.

C3 Ventures is an early stage startup investment firm. C3 Ventures invests in companies in spaces as varied as enterprise SaaS, healthcare, space tech, green energy, autonomous transportation, and consumer. Founded by successful technology entrepreneurs, companies can expect help with the hard issues they face as they grow.

C3 Ventures

Kleiner Perkins is a venture capital firm specializing in investing in early-stage, growth, and incubation companies. The firm continues that legacy, investing in founders with bold ideas that span industries and continents, partnering with them from inception to IPO and beyond to maximize the potential of their ideas. They also focus on early computer firms using their devices and programming and service companies. It also invests in the digital, life sciences, and healthcare industries.

Kleiner Perkins

Founders Fund is a venture capital firm that invests at every stage in companies building revolutionary technologies. It has been investors, founders, and early employees of prominent technology companies. It has historically invested in a wide variety of sectors, including aerospace, artificial intelligence, advanced computing, energy, health, and consumer Internet.

Founders Fund

Battery Ventures is a investment firm that focuses on technology. It invests in potentially, category-defining businesses in markets including application software, IT infrastructure technologies, consumer-internet and mobile services, and industrial technologies.

Battery Ventures

Felicis Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Menlo Park, California. The firm invests in seed through Series C stage companies across multiple sectors and industries reinventing core markets, as well as those creating frontier technologies. Felicis currently manages over $2B in capital across 8 funds. The firm is an early backer of more than 40 companies valued at $1B+. More than 90 of its portfolio companies have been acquired or gone public since the firm was founded by Aydin Senkut in 2006.

Felicis

Counterpart Advisors is a Venture Capital, Private Equity & Consulting firm that engages in highly competitive and visible markets.

Counterpart Advisors

01 Advisors is a venture and advisory firm helping founders go from building a product to building a company. The firm was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

01 Advisors

Necessary Ventures focuses on investing in what the world needs. They work with the founders to build the most scalable solutions.

Necessary Ventures

Modern Health

Modern Health is a mental well-being platform for innovative companies offering therapy, coaching, and self-guided courses all in one app. The platform combines the WHO well-being assessment, self-service wellness kits, a network of certified coaches, and licensed therapists available in 35 languages all available in a seamless app. It empowers employers to charge in acknowledging that mental health is just as important as physical health, destigmatizing the conversation, and increasing the accessibility of mental health services for all.

Modern Health provides a digital and professional support platform to help individuals reduce stress, feel more engaged, and improve their overall well-being. The company offers a suite of services, including one-on-one therapy sessions, coaching, self-guided digital programs, meditations, and live provider-led group sessions. Modern Health's platform utilizes a proprietary algorithm to match users with appropriate providers based on their well-being assessment and focus areas. The company's approach is grounded in evidence-based techniques such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, and Mindfulness. In March 2024, Modern Health expanded its offerings to include Physical Well-Being Pathways, integrating physical health into its mental wellness services.&nbsp;

New technologies are opening up mental health services to previously overbooked and underserved populations.

Mental Health Tech

Modern Health Selected To Prestigious Inc. 5000 List of America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies

Modern Health provides a digital and professional support platform to help individuals reduce stress, feel more engaged, and improve their overall well-being. The company offers a suite of services, including one-on-one therapy sessions, coaching, self-guided digital programs, meditations, and live provider-led group sessions. Modern Health's platform utilizes a proprietary algorithm to match users with appropriate providers based on their well-being assessment and focus areas. The company's approach is grounded in evidence-based techniques such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, and Mindfulness. In March 2024, Modern Health expanded its offerings to include Physical Well-Being Pathways, integrating physical health into its mental wellness services.&nbsp;In February 2021, Modern Health became the fastest women-founded entity to gain unicorn status, with a valuation of USD 1.17 billion. Furthermore, in August 2024, the company acquired Anvil Health’s AI technology to integrate into its solution. Key customers and partnershipsAs of September 2021, the company had more than 250 customers globally. Notable clients include Pixar, SoFi, Okta, Carta, Electronic Arts, Rakuten, Clif Bar, Udemy, and TripActions. The company’s services are available in 55+ countries and in 50+ languages as of June 2022.Modern Health has formed notable partnerships, including a collaboration with tennis player Naomi Osaka in March 2024 to name her as Chief Community Health Advocate to raise awareness and destigmatize mental healthcare. The company also worked with Google to establish wellness centers at regional offices in Chicago, Boulder, and Austin (October 2023).

Boulder Care is a telehealth provider that offers virtual addiction treatment for substance use disorders, primarily focusing on opioid and alcohol use disorders. The company provides medical care, medication management, peer recovery coaching, and case management services through a mobile app, allowing patients to connect with a multidisciplinary care team, including physicians, nurse practitioners, peer recovery specialists, and social services support. Boulder Care's treatment approach includes medication-assisted treatment (MAT), prescribing medications such as buprenorphine-naloxone (Suboxone) for opioid use disorder and naltrexone, acamprosate, and others for alcohol use disorder. The company also delivers naloxone doses to patients to help reverse opioid overdoses.The company has implemented value-based payment arrangements with insurers, tying its financial success to patient outcomes. As of May 2024, Boulder Care had served over 12,000 patients across multiple states, with a concentration in Washington, Oregon, and Ohio. The company reports retention rates of 70%–80% of patients remaining in treatment after six months, significantly above the national average. Boulder Care had also expanded its services to include treatment for adolescents as of January 2024.Key customers and partnershipsBoulder Care has established partnerships with numerous health plans and employers to provide access to its services, including Elevance Health, UnitedHealth Community Plan, and Centene.

Boulder Care

<div>
 
 7 Cups provides an emotional-support platform with a network of volunteer listeners. Users can anonymously access either one-on-one chats or group chats 24/7, free of charge for issues such as depression, anxiety, relationships and those related to the LGBTQ+ community. It also teaches users skills such as meditation to improve their lives. If users want additional support, the company also provides access to an online therapy platform with a network of 180 licensed therapists for a subscription plan of USD 150 per month. 7 Cups is available for users above 13 years of age (users between 13 and 17 years old engage with listeners who are specifically trained in teenage interactions).
 
 
 Volunteer peer listeners get free training and support as well as flexible scheduling. Once a user requests a chat, it will be directed to available listeners and if the user requests a specific listener, he will be connected as soon as the listener accepts the demand. The service is anonymous and the listener has no access to the details of the user unless the information is disclosed to the listener by the user in their conversations. As of January 2022, 7 Cups has facilitated more than 51 million conversations, served 25 million individuals, and had 300,000 trained listeners. The listeners serve in 180 countries in 140 languages.
 
</div>

7 Cups

wayForward provides technology-supported behavioral health and emotional wellness services for employers planning to make services available to their employees. It uses a screening procedure designed by neuropsychologists to triage and help employee members get clinically relevant mental healthcare. The company provides a self-guided app, text-based coaching, video visits, telepsychiatry, and if required, in-person visits or an on-site counselor. wayForward leverages its evidence-based approach and artificial intelligence in delivering its services and claims that it has been able to reduce anxiety symptoms by 48% and depression symptoms by 59%.The company raised USD 2 million in a seed round in June 2020, which brought total funding to USD 4.5 million. DarioHealth, a chronic disease management platform based in Israel, signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100% of wayForward in May 2021 for a total consideration of USD 30 million. As of May 2021, the wayForward had approximately 20,000 members and was available in North America, Australia, and Europe.

wayForward

Coa is a mental health company that conducts online classes led by licensed therapists for mental health users. The classes focus on conditions such as stress, anxiety, confidence and relationships. The company raised USD 3 million in a seed round in October 2020 from investors led by Crosslink Capital.

Meru Health is an online platform that connects patients experiencing stress, depression, anxiety, burnout, and other mental health issues to licensed therapists. The company was founded by Kristian Ranta in 2016 after his older brother died from suicide after battling depression. The platform offers a 12-week program and personalized text-based coaching services and virtual workshops. Meru also provides access to progress reports and anonymous peer support groups as well as sleep, nutrition, and mindfulness advice. The program utilizes a wearable device that monitors heart rate variability and provides real-time feedback, allowing patients to visualize the connection between their mental and physical health.In March 2024, Meru Health introduced a 100% fees-at-risk pricing model for healthcare payers and employers, guaranteeing outcomes, access, and engagement. This value-based care approach aims to incentivize enrollment, quality care delivery, cost management, and medical cost savings.The company reported a 10x YoY growth in its customer base in 2020 and plans to serve 10 million users by 2027. The company also achieved 8x YoY growth in revenue in 2020 amid an increase in demand in mental health services brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.Key customers and partnershipsMeru Health partners with major health insurance providers, including Humana, Aetna, and Moda Health. In January 2022, the company joined Evernorth's national behavioral health provider network, making its services available to Cigna health plan customers accessing benefits through their employer or individual and family plans.Meru Health also works with employer groups to provide mental healthcare for employees. In September 2022, Meru Health and clinical trial platform Curebase <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/13230">announced a partnership </a>to carry out a three-year clinical trial to measure the effectiveness of Meru Health’s 12-week digital depression treatment targeting primary care patients. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health’s Small Business Innovation Research program.

Meru Health

Online peer-to-peer platform and support system that connects mental health communities.

Mobile-based apps and FDA-approved software that incorporate evidenced-based cognitive behavioral therapy to prevent, treat, or manage mental and behavioral conditions in conjunction with or as a replacement for traditional medication.

Products for behavioral health and mental health tracking, measurement-based care, and real-time remote monitoring of patients.

Subscription or membership-based platforms and apps to connect therapists, psychiatrists or behavioral health coaches with patients.

Offers virtual offerings for mental health consultations

Mental healthcare services offer personalized care tailored to a user's needs and treatment progression

There are mental health providers offering services specifically to help LGBTQ+ or BIPOC individuals

Several mental health technology providers offer therapy services rendered by AI/ML technology

Modern Health

About EDGE

Contact Us

Resources

Area of Focus

Technology Research Made Effortless