Digital mental health company HelloBetter raises Series A extension led by MassMutual Ventures

Berlin, March 10, 2022 – HelloBetter, a Berlin-based, digital mental healthcare company, announces a €4 million extension of its recently announced €6 million Series A funding round, bringing the total investment in the round to €10 million. MassMutual Ventures (MMV), a multistage, global venture capital firm, was joined by existing investors HealthCap, Expon Capital and Sparrow Ventures.

HelloBetter offers online programmes, so-called digital therapeutics, for the prevention and treatment of mental health conditions. The company has secured universal health insurance reimbursement for four of its products in Germany – treating Burnout, Depression in Diabetes patients, Chronic Pain and Vaginismus. HelloBetter has the largest evidence base of any digital therapeutics company in the mental healthcare space (33 clinical studies), which have consistently shown that its products are some of the most effective in the industry. The total number of clients treated has grown by 125% from 2020 to 2021, and partners include health insurance companies such as Barmer, AudiBKK, Allianz and Swica, ratiopharm, a subsidiary of Teva Pharmaceuticals, as well as over 100 employers.

The additional funds will be used to push the commercialisation of HelloBetter’s products in the German market, and to advance its expansion beyond the DACH region where HelloBetter is active so far. Recently, the company joined the Digital Therapeutics Alliance, the leading industry association for DTx companies, to prepare for further international expansion.

Reactions to HelloBetter’s Round Extension

“We are excited to receive backing from yet another strong partner, as our category leadership in the field of digital therapeutics for mental health is becoming increasingly more visible. This is an excitingly effective treatment modality that allows us to deliver high-quality mental health care at an unprecedented scale,” says Hannes Klöpper, co-founder and CEO of HelloBetter. The magnitude of the challenge and importance of mental health care was recently underlined when President Biden announced his mental health care strategy in his State of the Union address. 

Ryan Collins, MMV’s Managing Director, commented “HelloBetter combines deep roots in academic research, with the strong execution expected of a venture-backed company. We are excited about the promising early success that the team has seen in Germany and Switzerland, and look forward to working with them on replicating it in other international markets.” 

Healthcare Markets Worldwide Open up to DTx

The funding round follows on the heels of a flurry of successful regulatory approvals in the context of the so-called Digital Care Act, a German law that established a pathway to universal reimbursement for digital therapeutics. Using software as a medical device (SaMD) DTx allows for the effective, efficient and thus highly scalable treatment of often chronic mental and behavioural health conditions. Germany was the first country in the world that tied approval by its national regulatory agency for pharmaceuticals and medical devices (BfArM) directly to mandatory reimbursement. In effect over 70 million members insured by public health insurance now have free access to dozens of approved digital medical devices when prescribed by a doctor or a psychotherapist. Emmanuel Macron’s recent announcement to replicate the German regulatory framework in France stirred excitement among digital health enthusiasts, as his administration aims to enable digital health companies to apply for product approvals as early as July 2022. Recent decisions by public and private payers in the United States to adopt DTx are further signs of the market’s development. An analysis by German market research and consulting company TLGG even predicts that the size of the market for digital medical devices may exceed that of prescription drugs shortly after 2035.
 

MassMutual Ventures (MMV)

MMV is a multistage, global venture capital firm investing in digital health, financial technology, enterprise software, and cybersecurity companies. We help accelerate the growth of the companies we partner with by providing capital, connections and advice. MMV’s sole limited partner is MassMutual, a Fortune 500 financial services company with assets under management of $460 billion (Dec. 2021).

HealthCap

HealthCap is a European venture capital firm investing exclusively and globally in life sciences. The investment strategy focuses on treatments for diseases with high unmet medical need that have the potential to be transformative and change both medical practice as well as the lives of patients suffering from these conditions.

Expon Capital
Expon Capital is a venture capital firm with a higher purpose, headquartered in Luxembourg, investing in European (as well as US and Israeli) private technology companies, from pre-Series A to late stage. Expon Capital backs Ambitious Teams with Bold Ideas and Exponential Genes to solve Hard, Valuable Problems for a Global Impact (addressing one or more of the 17 UN SDGs). Expon Capital looks for highly disruptive breakthroughs and deep tech (specifically in Energy, Health, Climate using AI, Big Data, Blockchain, Robotics, SaaS, Space).

Sparrow Ventures

Sparrow Ventures is a Zurich-based venture builder and growth equity investor. With a unique organizational structure and an experienced team of business-driven experts, Sparrow Ventures focus lies on building and investing in companies in a multitude of relevant fields, in particular Food & Beverage, Fintech, Last-Mile, Digital Health, Sustainability & Circular Economy as well as Commerce & Shopping. Sparrow Ventures is an autonomous operating subsidiary of Migros – one of the largest retailers in Europe.