16. Spring Health

Founders: April Koh (CEO), Adam Chekroud
Launched: 2016
Headquarters: New York City
Funding: $300 million
Valuation: $2.5 billion
Key technologies: Artificial intelligence
Industry: Health care
Previous appearances on Disruptor 50 List: 0

Mental health and worker wellness have been in the spotlight since the pandemic brought on a shift towards remote work, one factor in a tight labor market where employee productivity is critical. That has prompted more employers to focus on employee stress, anxiety, depression and burnout. Spring Health is one of a new generation of mental health providers to offer benefits to employers and health plans. 

The company got its start as an academic research effort at Yale University, which led to clinically validated data that gave rise to Spring Health. The company draws on the trend toward precision medicine and uses its platform to pinpoint and deliver exactly what works for each person — whether that is meditation, coaching, therapy, medication, and beyond. Co-founder and CEO April Koh said she pursued a more accurate, data-driven approach after watching loved ones try different providers, programs and medication without success. 

"Every time something doesn't work, it's hard to muster up the courage and the hope to start all over again. In five to ten years, mental health-care is going to look radically different: instead of being a guessing game of trial and error, mental healthcare will be precisely and accurately tailored to each individual through data," she said in a post on the company's website.

Today, Spring Health serves over 800 companies, from startups to multinational Fortune 500 corporations, including General Mills, Bain, and Instacart. Last year, it added Microsoft, JPMorgan Chase and Trinity Health among its roster of customers. It acquired family wellness platform Weldon in May for an undisclosed amount, expanding its capabilities to provide more family-focused services, including helping families deal with sleep, behavior, conflicts, grief, development and neurodiversity. This year, it expanded into more than 40 countries and 20 languages, and raised $71 million in April, representing roughly one-fourth of all the capital it has raised to date.  

While it's growing, many companies are chasing the same opportunity, and rival providers focused on mental health include Headspace Health, Lyra Health and Modern Health. The big telemedicine platforms, including Teladoc, Zocdoc and Amwell, are also targeting this specialty, which is expected to be one of the pandemic-triggered shifts to remote health-care that becomes permanent. While there still remains a stigma around mental health, research shows a growing mental health crisis and more openness among younger generations to be transparent with care needs. More than 50 million U.S. adults experienced a mental illness in 2020.