Little Otter Announces $22 Million Series A Investment In Child And Family Mental Health

Enterprise capitalists poured $1.5 billion into psychological well being startups in 2020, however few of those firms give attention to the complete household and none give attention to kids ages three and underneath – although the Covid-19 pandemic has pushed children’s mental health to crisis levels. Youngsters immediately are affected by nervousness, PTSD, stress, and despair at alarming charges, and but many mother and father have problem accessing care. The American Academy of Baby and Adolescent Psychaitry (AACP) argues that the U.S. wants four times as many child psychiatrists as are presently obtainable. 

Little Otter is the primary digital psychological well being firm to offer psychological well being care for youngsters underneath 13 and their mother and father. The expertise rapidly triages households so that youngsters, mother and father and siblings can obtain the specialty care they want, which contains goal-setting and measurable outcomes. With Little Otter, 85% of households see scientific enchancment in simply six classes – the time it takes most youngsters simply to be seen for an preliminary session. 

On January 6, 2022, Little Otter is asserting one of many largest Sequence A rounds for a kids’s psychological well being firm at this stage, $22 million led by CRV. The mother-daughter cofounders – Rebecca Egger, beforehand of Chan-Zuckerberg Institute and Palantir, and Dr. Helen Egger M.D., beforehand head of kid psychiatry at NYU Langone and Duke College – are intent on delivering a brand new mannequin to overtake how we take into consideration and deal with kids’s psychological well being. Since its launch in Could 2021, Little Otter has seen 45% month-over-month progress.

Right here is how Little Otter works. A household indicators up on the app by taking a five-minute questionnaire about their youngster and household wants. They’re then related with a private care lead who finds the suitable supplier – a baby therapist or psychiatrist, parenting specialist, {couples} counselor and extra. The care lead stays a accomplice all through the complete journey, setting objectives with the household, doing quarterly psychological well being checkups, measuring success, and conserving the household’s wants on observe. All Little Otter households even have entry to assets, actions and instruments to assist their psychological well being wants.

Cofounder and Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Helen Egger is a pioneer within the subject of kid psychiatry, with over 30 years of scientific and educational expertise. “I knew that the youngsters’s psychological well being disaster couldn’t be solved simply by coaching extra suppliers,” she says. “We have to convey digital innovation and information science along with youngster psychological well being. I left behind a prestigious profession main youngster and adolescent psychiatry departments at distinguished establishments so as to launch Little Otter to assist resolve these issues. It feels just like the end result of my life’s work.” 

CEO and cofounder Rebecca Egger has greater than 10 years of expertise working in medical expertise, specializing in product design. “To start with, I got here on board with Little Otter solely as a guide to assist my mother together with her new mission, and put the product and engineering chops from my jobs at Palantir and the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative to work. Nonetheless, after constructing the primary pitch deck, I knew I had to assist. We’re constructing one thing of lasting worth, bringing scientists, medical doctors, engineers, therapists, designers, and extra collectively to create a brand new answer for household psychological well being.”

One silver lining of the pandemic is that digital care has develop into accepted by mother and father, permitting Little Otter to enter kids’s lives as a trusted accomplice. Previously yr, Little Otter has helped households determined for psychological well being assist obtain rapid entry to care. 70% of U.S. counties don’t have a baby psychiatrist, solely 17% of psychiatrists have appointments obtainable, and the typical wait time to see a specialist is 43 days. Little Otter eliminates this wait time and ensures that when kids and oldsters do see caregivers, it’s with the proper supplier for his or her particular wants. 

Little Otter additionally presents households useful instruments to help in managing their kids’s psychological well being. A tantrum evaluation helps mother and father study whether or not or not they need to fear about their youngster’s mood tantrums. A back-to-school toolkit offers mother and father a customized report and actionable recommendations on easy methods to navigate the brand new college yr. A vacation toolkit presents mother and father recommendation on easy methods to navigate vacation associated nervousness and stress.

“Serving to younger folks have the healthiest psychological well being doable in order that they’ll pursue their life’s function is what Little Otter is all about,” says Rebecca Egger. “My recommendation to others trying to find and pursuing a profession with function is to prioritize psychological well being in order that they are often wholesome and joyful, which permits us to be curious and uncover our life’s passions.”