NEW YORK & LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Limbic, a leading clinical mental health AI technology company, today announced that it has raised a funding round of $14 million led by Khosla Ventures and joined by new investors, including Gaingels, an LGBTQIA+/Allies investment syndicate, and Illusian, the family office of Ilkka Paananen, co-founder of Supercell.
Limbic’s mental health AI has been used by over 260,000 patients across the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) Talking Therapies. Limbic’s clinical AI has demonstrated increased access to mental health services, acceleration in patient onboarding, reduced wait times, and improved quality of care.
The funding will expand the availability of Limbic’s clinical mental health AI to U.S. health providers. Initial U.S. health systems and payers using Limbic’s clinically-based AI solutions, which were developed for the world’s largest public health system in the NHS, will be announced over the coming months.
A recent Nature Medicine study of Limbic in use by the NHS saw a significant increase in mental health referrals among ethnic and sexual minority groups. This included a 179% increase among people who identified as non-binary, 39% for Asian and 40% for Black mental health patients. Additionally, Limbic’s peer-reviewed research reveals substantial time savings that amount to 50,000 hours of clinician time returned across Limbic’s current usage in the NHS.
“The global behavioral healthcare sector is grappling with a critical workforce supply challenge. Care providers are experiencing burnout, and services are stretched thin, operating on slim margins,” stated Dr. Ross Harper, CEO and co-founder of Limbic.
"Our recent funding reaffirms our commitment to scaling impactful, safe, and regulatory-compliant mental health AI solutions. Our AI was developed to enhance the capabilities of human clinicians, amplify their expertise, and extend high-quality care to meet everyone's needs. We’ve also bolstered business outcomes for service providers and assisted in increasing workforce capacity thanks to increased operational performance.”
"There is a grave shortage of mental healthcare providers across the globe," said Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures. "AI will allow us to realize the potential of near-free access to such care for everyone, independent of provenance and socioeconomic status. Limbic is at the forefront of this important and ambitious goal, and we are proud to partner with them."
"Besides the strength of its business opportunity, Limbic’s success in helping minority groups access mental healthcare played a big role in our investment in the company,” said Gaingels' Managing Director Lorenzo Thione. “Limbic's use of artificial intelligence to increase participation in mental health services for LGBTQ+ and non-binary patients is a great example of how AI can measurably improve people's lives through safe, universal and non-judgmental access.”
As well as increasing access to mental health care, Limbic helps patients with the world’s first Generative AI mental health care companion that supports users between therapy sessions. A seamless chatbot interface powered by a sophisticated clinical AI brain guides patients through a selection of 100 themed activities and educational materials, providing mental health support with clinical rigor on an on-demand basis.
About Limbic
Limbic’s clinical mental health AI has been proven in the world’s largest public healthcare system. Limbic has helped over 260,000 NHS patients enter care, releasing over 50,000 clinical hours for NHS services and saving nearly 5 to 10 times the economic cost per additional user recovery. Limbic has also significantly increased the diversity of patients accessing mental health care.
