Rose Health, a Baltimore-based mental health technology startup recently named one of the DC area’s 21 startups to watch, announced the conclusion of its oversubscribed seed round, with $1.73M in accepted commitments, 80 percent from strategic investors to the company. The company had initially planned to raise a $1.5M seed round, but overwhelming investor demand necessitated the company increasing the round by 15%. The round was led by Maryland-based Old Line Capital Partners, a venture firm specializing in innovative and disruptive early-stage technology companies.
Funds raised will be used to support customer acquisition, new feature development, the creation a child/adolescent version of the Rose Mental Health platform and a first-of-its-kind employer program pilot with The Visiting Nurse Service of New York.
“We continue to receive positive feedback from physicians on how Rose is a game-changer for improving patient care and outcomes,” commented Kavi Misri, founder and CEO of Rose Health. “With the rise in mental health issues and the demand on clinicians to treat patients suffering from depression and anxiety, there is a growing need for the Rose app to help fill the gap with remote patient monitoring and support. The overwhelming commitments we’ve received from investors will allow us to accelerate our next phase of development and demonstrates the industry’s confidence in Rose’s mental health solutions,” said Misri.
The core of Rose Health’s technology is the mental health patient monitoring app and provider dashboard. Using patent-pending AI and natural language processing technology, the app is able to detect markers in speech and emotion to help identify early warning signs of depression and mood disorder conditions. The platform produces a Rose score, a patient’s mental health credit score, based on the user’s input into the app.
“We are extremely impressed with the technology and performance of the Rose app since its launch,” commented Quentin Smith of OLCP. “Old Line Capital is focused on investing in disruptive technologies, and was blown away by the combination of sophisticated, patented technology and evidence-based studies that show positive outcomes – a combination that separates Rose from the other products on the market. There is nothing like this on the market, and we are excited to see the company’s continued growth and impact on the industry.”
Notable investor Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY) joins the seed round as both an investor and a client. With over 15,000 dedicated clinicians and health care professionals—including registered nurses, rehabilitation therapists, social workers, and certified home health aides, VNSNY will use the Rose app in conjunction with other services they offer to create a holistic solution for the 44,000 patients they see every day. “The toll the COVID-19 pandemic has taken on the mental and emotional health of our front-line workers and their patients cannot be overstated, and we were searching for a robust solution,” David Rosales, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer of VNSNY said, “Rose has all the elements needed to support us and will be critical in helping us build mental health resiliency in the patients we serve and prevent burnout among our staff.”
Additional investors in the seed round include Underdog Ventures; two-time NFL Superbowl Champion Torrey Smith; Dr. John Shivdat, Chairman and Medical Director of Emergency Medical Services, HCA Healthcare of Coliseum Medical Center; Robert Rothenberg, Partner of SM Isragroup LLC; Dr. Faizi Ahmed et al. of Tampa Neuropsychiatry; a partner at the law firm of Milbank LLP; David Warschawski, CEO & Founder of Warschawski; Dr. Erik Ilyayev, CEO & Founder of My House Visit; Brandon Gelbart of White Cloud; Patrick Conlin, Principal of Conlin & Co.; BD Health Services; Dr. Sadi Benzaquen; Rafi Benzaquen; Rose Health Ventures; and Amrit Lakan, Managing Partner of Sunshine Health Ventures.
ABOUT ROSE HEALTH:
Rose Health is a comprehensive technology solution that provides a HIPAA-compliant mental health monitoring platform based on clinical trials and research by Johns Hopkins University. The Rose Health platform is powered by patented artificial intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology, which enables it to identify key indicators and warning markers for the presence and/or advancement of mental health symptoms in a user’s responses to questions and prompts. Rose offers a mobile app for the 43 million Americans experiencing mental illnesses and an artificial intelligence-powered tool for health care providers to monitor and support their patients. (rosehealth.com)
