A St. Petersburg telehealth company focused on female health has closed an oversubscribed $2.4 million seed round.
LunaJoy Health, which launched its online platform in October 2021, announced the round on Tuesday. All the investors, including the lead investor, were undisclosed.
“Being a female, not from the startup world, has been part of an interesting journey,” Sipra Laddha, CEO and co-founder of LunaJoy, said in a previous interview with Tampa Bay Inno. “The other thing is, maternal health is a really easy problem to ignore. We’ve seen the global impact, but it’s a different perspective when you’re an investor and used to investing in general health, or fintech, that has been given a lot of time and attention. But it’s an incredible economic opportunity, and we’re very lucky to have investors who recognized the potential early on.”
LunaJoy launched in April 2021; Laddha and co-founder Shama Rathi previously worked as psychiatrists. The company offers a digital care clinic for women in their life span, starting with puberty throughout perimenopause. It provides in-network therapy, medication management and coaching. It has partnered with industry giants Cigna and Optum and has physicians, therapists and coaches trained in mental health.
“When we launched our digital clinic one year ago, we wanted to make sure women’s health issues were treated with the care, respect and seriousness they deserved and not dismissed by the medical establishment, which is so often the case,” Laddha said in a statement. “Today’s raise announcement not only shows that others share the same passion for our mission but that women of all backgrounds will get the help and care we so richly deserve.”
The funding will be used to grow its user base, hire and expand geographically. LunaJoy has served over 1,000 clients across 17 states. It has participated in the Y Combinator and Tampa Bay Wave accelerator programs.
“The one thing we’ve been consistently really excited about is there’s been a lot of excitement around innovation in Tampa Bay,” Laddha said. “All the conversations we’ve had have been incredibly positive. There’s a lot of innovation going on around the country, but the reception in Tampa Bay has been incredible.”
