Virtual mental health company Iris Telehealth announced thursday It has raised $40 million to expand access to behavioral health services.
The Austin, Texas-based company said it plans to use the funding to develop clinical operations, commercial and technical teams that can help health systems and community health centers meet the mental health needs of patients.
Concord Health Partners and Columbia Pacific Advisors led the Series B round.Colombia is the original investor Iris Telemedicine And expanded funding commitments to support the company’s growth.
“This funding will allow us to scale our clinical operations to meet our enormous demand for behavioral healthcare services,” Iris CEO Andy Flanagan said in an email. “It will also allow us to expand our product and technology capabilities to help our client partners manage patients across the continuum, ensuring the right patients receive the right care at the right time.”
Since its founding in 2013, Flanagan said its core mission has been to provide quality, sustainable behavioral healthcare so that the organizations it works with can better support the patients and communities that need it most.
“This has been consistent over the past nine years and will remain the same in the future,” he said. “This funding will allow us to scale deeper and faster to achieve this mission.”
Iris now serves nearly 200 hospitals and community health centers and will welcome its 2 millionth patient this year, he said.
even as Overall use of telehealth decreased Demand for behavioral telehealth has been strong since the beginning of the pandemic. Virtual teletherapy allows people to be seen from the comfort of their own homes and provides an option for many who cannot access a mental health professional in person.in view of With 77% of U.S. counties facing a shortage of psychiatrists, providing timely, high-quality care to patients with serious mental illness has never been more important or challenging, according to Iris.
“Unfortunately, the demand for quality behavioral care in this country exceeds the supply,” Flanagan said.
Many virtual mental health care organizations are stepping in to try to fill the void.This includes companies like PMC (Psychiatric Medical) and innovation phone Also focuses on underserved communities.
For its part, According to its investors, Iris Telehealth was able to rapidly expand its business to provide vital mental health support to more patients while maintaining profitability.
“We’ve seen Iris grow for many years and believe they’re just getting started,” said Bata, co-founder and managing partner of Columbia Pacific Consultants, in a statement. “We look forward to helping them scale to support more healthcare organizations and patients in need of quality behavioral healthcare.”
Image credit: Olga Strelnikova, Getty Images
