Pediatric mental health startup Hand Jump raised $19 million in Series B financing this week. The company aims to help reshape the way children’s mental health care is delivered, primarily by creating a system in which the intensity of treatment is tailored to the patient’s actual needs, not just what is available.
Families are struggling to get mental health care for their children on two fronts, noted Sahil Choudhry, CEO of Handspring. The first is access – he pointed to long waiting lists and the scarcity of providers accepting insurance. The second issue, quality, is not addressed as much.
“Even when a child is in therapy, care is not always effective because well-meaning clinicians often do not receive extensive and ongoing training in proven methods, such as [cognitive behavioral therapy] And [dialectical behavior therapy]and the field has little standardization requiring training and proof of competence,” Choudhry explained. “So families wait a long time and don’t always receive care that actually helps them, and payers pay for care that doesn’t work.”
Handspring seeks to address these issues by providing insurance-covered, evidence-based care. Choudhry said families typically find the platform through their pediatrician, school counselor or health plan.
The startup has a payer presence in nine states: California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Washington.
During a free consultation call, the Handspring intake team confirms insurance coverage and discovers the child’s difficulties. Then they match the patient with the right therapist for their needs and begin care, usually within a week, Choudhry noted.
Treatment is virtual, with sessions taking place via video from home. This begins with the diagnostic process, which includes two dedicated assessment sessions with the parents and child.
“Each diagnosis is reviewed and discussed with a clinical supervisor. Misdiagnosis is a real and underestimated problem in mental health. A bad diagnosis means a bad treatment plan, and a child can go months without getting better,” Choudhry added.
From there, the child works with their therapist and receives more “active, skills-based” care than just talk therapy, he said.
For a child with anxiety or OCD, this often means exposure work to help them gradually and safely cope with situations they have been avoiding. Other children may need dialectical behavior therapy to manage intense emotions or cognitive behavioral therapy tools that they practice between sessions.
“The common thread is that kids leave with real-world skills that they can use on their own,” Choudhry said.
Therapists are employed and trained by Handspring rather than being contractors, he added.
He said Handspring invests in their development by organizing continuing education, supporting individual clinical consultations and creating clinical working groups.
“It’s about ensuring consistent quality and results, and it shows in the numbers. After discharge, 93 percent of families report an improvement in their family’s daily life,” Choudhry said.
Another aspect that helps Handspring stand out from other pediatric mental health providers, he says, is that it treats the entire acuity spectrum.
“Most behavioral health problems go straight from low-acuity hour-long weekly therapy to the emergency room or an intensive outpatient program that often includes more than 12 hours per week for more than 12 weeks, and is group-based and expensive. There is almost nothing in between for a child whose depression or anxiety escalates into something like self-harm but who does not need hospital or emergency care,” explained Choudhry.
He believes Handspring’s complex care program fills that “missing link.”
Under this program, patients receive approximately 3 to 6 hours of outpatient care per week combining cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, parent coaching and medication management.
“We can match each child to the level of care they actually need instead of turning them away or putting them into care. Many companies focus on one slice of that spectrum: we are designed to care for a child as their needs change,” Choudhry noted.
The company’s Series B round was led by RPS companieswith the participation of other funds, notably Angelini Ventures, Cobalt Companies, NextSee Ventures, capital nvp, The Angels of Hyde Park And Cornucopia Capital. Handspring has now raised a total of $37 million since its inception in 2022.
As it grows, the startup plans to establish more partnerships with payers. Choudhry believes Handspring’s model will be attractive to insurers because it aligns costs with clinical needs.
“First, our entire model is designed to give young people real skills so they can graduate rather than stay in therapy indefinitely. Care that ends when the child is better is good for families and for payers. Second, because we treat the full range of acuities, we match each child to the right level of care instead of defaulting to the most intensive and expensive option – and complex care in particular saves young people visits expensive in the emergency room and IOPs that they don’t really need,” he said.
Handspring also measures outcomes so payers can see that care is working, Choudhry added.
For the New York-based startup, the next step will be to prove that this approach can scale without losing the quality it is built on.
Photo: Maskot, Getty Images
