Journey Clinical raises $8.5M Series A led by Union Square Ventures to expand access to Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy
By: Jonathan Sabbagh (CEO) & Myriam Barthes (COO), Co-Founders of Journey Clinical
We are in the middle of a staggering mental health crisis, one that has been exacerbated since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, 1 in 5 adults in the US lives with a form of mental illness, and treatment-resistant conditions are on the rise: approximately 30% of people diagnosed with major depressive disorder are resistant to conventional treatments. Despite the 41+ million people engaged in psychotherapy, existing treatments often do not provide lasting relief or long-term improvements in quality of life. With limited innovation in psychiatry over the last 50 years and a growing US psychiatrist shortage, new interventions with profound, sustainable impact are urgently needed.
At Journey Clinical, we are on a mission to transform the mental health crisis by accelerating the adoption of frontier treatments that provide patients with lasting improved outcomes. We have built a turnkey healthtech platform to safely and effectively expand access to a powerful modality known as Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy (PAP), which focuses on the supervised use of psychedelic medicines as an adjunct to psychotherapy.
Before we founded Journey Clinical, there was limited opportunity for patients to reliably and affordably access these transformative treatments. Similarly, it was a cumbersome and challenging process for interested psychotherapists to offer these treatments as an adjunct to therapy. Journey Clinical has built a unique platform anchored in a patient-centered collaborative care model that honors the relationship between psychotherapists and patients, while making PAP significantly more accessible. As a two-sided marketplace, Journey Clinical provides both licensed psychotherapists and patients with access to these therapies. Licensed psychotherapists receive everything they need to confidently deliver PAP within their own practice, while eligible patients gain access to our world-class medical team for evaluation and care, and network of licensed mental health professionals. We have started with Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) and will expand to other psychotherapeutic treatments in the future as they continue to be validated, researched, and approved for broad use by the FDA.
Today we’re thrilled to announce the latest milestone for our business: an additional $8.5M in funding led by Union Square Ventures with participation from AlleyCorp, Fifty Years, Able Partners, Gaingels, Palo Santo, PsyMed Ventures, Coalition Operators, Mystic Ventures, Colibri, Satori Capital, and other angel investors. This round brings Journey Clinical’s total funding to ~$12 Million, and will enable us to continue to scale our offerings across the US. This funding also marks Union Square Ventures’ first investment in the psychedelics space, further validating the growing need for PAP and how uniquely differentiated Journey Clinical’s approach is within the market.
Rebecca Kaden, managing partner at USV, was immediately drawn to how our model empowers licensed mental health professionals as the core to responsibly scaling psychedelic therapy in the US:
“As the mental health crisis continues to accelerate at an alarming pace, Journey Clinical is creating a powerful network of providers and, through them, expanding access to the most important and effective treatments. Journey Clinical empowers therapists, the heart and engine of the mental health industry, to both expand their ability to treat their patients and continually train in new ways. USV is focused on leveraging important networks to broaden access and Journey Clinical is doing this in a critical way in mental health.”
The growth that we have experienced in the past year is a clear signal of the demand for new and effective mental health treatments. Since we opened our platform in February 2022, we’ve grown from 30 to ~700 KAP psychotherapists, and have treated over 1,000 patients across the country.
Our passionate community of psychotherapists has experienced tremendous value in being able to offer KAP in their practice through Journey Clinical. We’re honored to see such profound responses from our network of KAP providers:
“I have felt supported every step of the way, and being part of a larger community has contributed to my growth as a KAP practitioner. I had previously struggled to connect with a psychedelically-informed prescriber that understood how to work non-ordinary states of consciousness. At Journey Clinical, I feel secure that my clients are receiving quality treatment.” Liz Flores Farrell, LCSW, NJ
“The amazing team at Journey has allowed me to create a supported and safe container to offer the transformative modality of Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) to my clients and has aided in deeper levels of healing that may otherwise not have been accessible. I am also extremely grateful for the community and wisdom that is offered through Journey as we traverse this unfolding path of offering psychedelic supported psychotherapy” – Toni Kim, LCSW, NYC
“KAP helps people access and process trauma in ways that allow them to integrate and heal at a deep level. My clients have had significant breakthroughs in their therapeutic process, and so far all have reported improvement using this form of treatment. Journey Clinical is helping me to expand my practice by supporting virtual and group models that make this treatment more accessible and affordable as my waitlist keeps growing”. -Lorna Busch, PhD, MEd, MS, NY
We are overwhelmingly grateful to everyone who has been building Journey Clinical with us over the last two years: our investors, advisors, partners, team members, and, of course, our passionate member psychotherapists leading the way to deliver these powerful treatments in their communities. Whether you are a passionate psychotherapist, interested patient, or supporter of the psychedelic therapy sector, we invite you to join us.
To learn more about why Union Square Ventures invested in Journey Clinical, read their blog post here, as well as this Exclusive in Axios.