Colorado has a new technology unicorn, as a rising star in the behavioral health field now totes a $1 billion valuation.
Denver’s SonderMind announced a $150 million Series C financing round today that was co-led by new investors Drive Capital and Premji Invest, with participation from General Catalyst, Partners Group, Smash Ventures, Kickstart Fund, and F-Prime Capital.
The Series C funding increases SonderMind’s total capital raised to date to $183 million, with nearly all of that being raised in the last 18 months. A source close to the company confirmed the $1 billion valuation and unicorn status.
SonderMind’s mission is to make behavioral health more accessible by building a marketplace to connect patients with providers. The SonderMind platform matches clients who are a clinical fit with behavioral health experts, while handling payments, insurance reimbursement, clinical assessments and more.
The company, which launched in 2014, has seen incredible growth during the pandemic, as more people seek out crucial mental health resources. As proof of that growing need, SonderMind reported 400% revenue growth since its $27 million Series B round in April 2020.
The company first operated in Colorado, Texas and Arizona, and has since expanded its services to 10 states across the country.
And, after long holding back on raising huge capital, the company is ready to take on a significant round to speed up its growth.
“We have historically raised meaningfully less than the amount that capital partners wanted to invest. We now believe that our playbooks are pretty well-baked and are ready for extremely rapid scaling into the definitive market leader,” co-founder and CEO Mark Frank told Denver Business Journal.
With this funding, SonderMind said it will accelerate expansion into all 50 states and further its commitment to providing affordable and accessible mental health care. SonderMind expects to be nationwide within the next few years, the company said.
By reaching the vaunted unicorn valuation, SonderMind joins DispatchHealth and Quantum Metric as Colorado technology companies that have achieved that status in 2021. It’s a meteoric rise for a company that as recently as April 2019 employed only 20 people.
The company currently has more than 250 employees, up from nearly 70 in April 2020. With this round, SonderMind expects to hire across the organization, with a focus on senior engineering and product roles.
Drive Capital’s Molly Bonakdarpour will join the SonderMind board in tandem with the fundraising.
“The essential need for behavioral health access is undeniable, and there is a growing field of companies looking to address the accessibility gap,” Bonakdarpour said in a statement. “SonderMind stood out to us as the market leader because of their clear approach to connecting individuals with therapists that meet their needs and take their insurance, all while producing clinically-verifiable outcomes for users. It is a win for all stakeholders: patients, therapists, and health plans.”
