Meru Health is known as a digital clinic for greater mental health — which has developed a licensed-clinician-supported and mobile phone-based digital therapeutic program for depression and anxiety.
Recently, Meru Health announced it secured $4.2 million in Series Seed financing from Freestyle Capital, Bonit Capital, Y Combinator, Lifeline Ventures, and IT-Farm. And Meru Health participated in Y Combinator last year and it is now participating in the Texas Medical Center TMCx Accelerator in Houston. The funding will be used for supporting additional clinical validation and preparation for larger scale rollout to health systems and large employers in several states across the U.S.
“All of us at Meru Health are excited to have Freestyle and the other esteemed investors join our seed round. This financing comes at a time of important company milestones and will enable us to continue on our growth trajectory,” said Meru Health co-founder and CEO Kristian Ranta. “The publication of the results of a 117-person clinical trial of the Meru Health digital therapeutic program demonstrating high completion and compliance rates with significant reduction in depression provides important evidence points for our approach. We are currently running a clinical trial with Stanford and the Veteran’s Administration and we are also in active discussions with several health plans and insurers.”
In the U.S., depression and anxiety are significant health issues affecting over 25 million Americans annually. And depression is the leading cause of disability and costs employers billions in lost productivity and healthcare costs. And less than 50% of those affected have access to care. Meru Health’s mental health digital clinic was built to improve access to and compliance with mental health treatment.
“Having met with scores of mental health startups over the last year, it was Meru’s full stack hybrid approach plus Kristian and his team’s dedication that spurred Freestyle’s decision to lead Meru’s seed. The clinical validation from a large peer-reviewed study plus impressive execution with Fortune 100 companies sealed the deal and made us confident that Meru Health’s solution will be attractive to employers and health plans and deliver for users. They’ve built a great solution, assembled an experienced team and engaged some of the most prestigious healthcare systems to test the technology. We are so excited to be working with Meru Health as they tackle one of the biggest health issues in the country,” added Freestyle Capital Josh Felser.
According to peer-reviewed data from a 117-patient clinical trial of the Meru Health intervention that was published online in JMIR this year, researchers found significant reduction in depression symptoms and close to an 80% program completion rate. Plus the study also determine that higher number of days of practice significantly predicted lower residual depression symptoms and greater group chat use predicted reduced depressive symptoms.
Meru Health is considered a quickly accessible digital clinic for greater mental health with remote therapists and psychiatrists, anonymous peer-group, and a 12-week digital therapeutic treatment program. Plus Meru’s program consists of continuous remote clinician support, at-home therapeutic lessons, and practices (cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness). And it also offers sleep medicine and nutritional psychiatry for a complete solution to healing depression.
“Although evidence-based treatments for depression exist, many people do not access them or wait several years before seeking treatment. Digital mental health interventions may help people with depression and other mental health conditions get treatment more easily. Our current study with Meru Health is testing their digital mental health intervention in middle aged and older adults with the hope to demonstrate whether individuals across the lifespan benefit from these interventions,” added Christine Gould, PhD, ABPP — who is an investigator at VA Palo Alto Health Care System and an Instructor (affiliated) at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Meru Health partners with employers, health systems, and health plans with a unique outcomes-based business model. So far, Meru Health has pilot programs ongoing with two Silicon Valley Fortune 100 companies. And there is a clinical trial with Stanford and the Veteran’s Administration currently underway.
