Armed with $2.4 million in seed funding, the physicians behind LunaJoy are ready to change the conversation about mental healthcare. Specifically, co-founders and psychiatrists Shama Rathi and Sipra Laddha want to address the gap in mental health care available to women.
“The conduit between medical health and behavioral health is broken. Screenings are not happening early and frequently enough. If a patient is symptomatic, the referral process to psychiatric care is ineffective. This contributes to the reactive model of mental health care that exists in this country today. We are on a mission to shift this paradigm to preventative with earlier screening, detection and access to services,” the team told Hypepotamus.
With roots in Tampa and Atlanta, LunaJoy looks to help women through different life stages – be it puberty, pregnancy, or menopause. Clients go through a one-hour biopsychosocial interview to “discuss their personalized goals, past history, current symptoms and stressors and co-create their treatment plan together,” added the LunaJoy team.
Clients are then given a personalized care plan to help with their specific health goals.
Funding in the Mental Health Space
Personalized health is a growing and important trend in the overall medtech and healthtech space. Particularly after the pandemic, healthcare systems and VC firms have poured money into the sector.
Mental health has also caught the attention of VCs. Youth mental health companies raised $871 million in 2021, according to a report from Vinaj Ventures. The overall mental health startup space raised over $1.5 billion in 2020.
LunaJoy is starting off 2023 with a fresh round of seed funding. The team recently closed a $2.4 million seed round, which the team says will help the team expand their workforce, their geographical footprint, and ultimately “penetrate deeper into health system partnerships.”
FoundersX Fund, Goodwater Capital, Magic Fund, VentureSouq, Nurture Ventures, NorthSouth Ventures and “seasoned angels and healthcare investors” have all backed LunaJoy to date.
LunaJoy is also a graduate of Y Combinator, the famed startup accelerator based in Silicon Valley.
While connected to the growing Tampa tech scene, LunaJoy has a distributed and remote workforce made up of 15 staff members and 25 clinicians.
LunaJoy is also part of a growing movement of female-focused health and wellness startups growing in the Southeast region of the US. We previously highlighted some of the unique startups here. The region is also home to SteelSky Ventures, a $72 million venture fund focused on women’s healthtech startups.
