UWill, a Needham company that is building a platform to connect college students with licensed therapists, has raised $5.25 million in angel funding.
The startup, founded in 2019, says it has grown by 600% in clients and 2,400% in revenue over the past year.
It’s currently in use at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, Fairfield University, University of San Francisco, and the Massachusetts and Michigan state university systems.
“We set out as a company to do something that no one else had done, from what we could find, within healthcare,” said founder Michael London in a recent interview. “And that was to be able to give a person an immediate connection to a licensed therapist, based upon their needs and preferences.”
London founded several education startups before launching UWill, which is developing its own network of therapists who embed their schedules into the system.
The pandemic hit shortly after the company launched, and London said it raised the need for the platform significantly.
“There are more people than ever before who are having challenges," London said.
But it also made students more comfortable than ever with receiving therapy through new modalities like video.
The platform lets students use video, phone, chat or message depending on their preferences. It also lets students choose a therapist based on factors like gender or ethnicity.
“I think the stigma with mental health is still very real,” London said. “To be able to offer therapy in a way that is far more comfortable, potentially more confidential and it just feels easier to students, I think we’re doing a lot of good.”
The company’s new funding was from the same “high-value angel investors and employees that have supported the company from its inception,” UWill said in its release. Among them are Michael Skoler, CEO of Sokolove Law, and Stephen Kramer, CEO of Bright Horizons.
UWill has 24 employees, with plans to expand to around 40 by the end of 2022, in addition to a network of more than 350 licensed therapists.
