At Alma, our mission is to simplify access to high quality, affordable mental health care. That mission has never felt more essential given the unprecedented events of this past year. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the state of mental health was already in crisis — despite over $221 billion in spending on mental health annually, 60 percent of adults with a mental health condition still had not received the care they needed within the past year. In 2020, the crisis only accelerated. Therapists offices shuttered and more than 2 in 5 people in the US have reported struggling with mental health issues associated specifically with COVID-19.
Over 1 million mental health professionals are at the front lines of this crisis, working tirelessly in the midst of extreme uncertainty to provide care to their clients. And while we often think of mental health providers for the services they offer, they are also small business owners, struggling with the demands of running their practice.
At Alma, our core belief is that when providers have the support they need, mental health care gets better for everyone. That’s why we set out to build a provider-first mental health company designed to help mental health care professionals build thriving private practices powered by our platform. We designed our business around the needs of providers, expanding the reach of our services and working directly with insurance companies to make it easy and rewarding for them to go in-network.
We never expected a year like 2020. With the onset and impact of a global pandemic, answering the question “What do providers need right now?” started to look very different, very fast. Providers needed to adapt to a radically different virtual care experience, secure their small businesses for uncertain economic impact, and take care of their own wellbeing in the process. The year presented unfathomable challenges, and for Alma, a unique opportunity to take a provider-first approach to ensuring that we were doing our part to make it possible for more people to access high quality, affordable mental health care in such a tumultuous time.
First and foremost, we focused on our providers. We accelerated product development to support online care, which was essential for providers to maintain continuity with existing clients and support new ones. We also focused on supporting providers in offering high quality care with timely training and education. We created guides on teletherapy best practices and hosted virtual events on issues impacting clinicians, from grappling with ambiguous grief to racial equity trainings for cultural sensitivity. Lastly, in support of our mission to increase access to affordable care, we added Aetna as our newest insurance partner.
In an incredibly unpredictable year, we were fortunate as a business to experience exponential growth. Our network of providers grew by 40 percent each quarter and expanded to the tri-state area, welcoming providers in New Jersey and Connecticut to the community. We saw dramatic growth in demand for affordable online care, with in-network sessions supported by Alma growing 267 percent quarter over quarter. Esther Perel also joined our Clinical Advisory board to help us support and train the next generation of mental health care providers.
We’re proud of the work we’ve done to support our members and we are excited to continue our momentum with new funding — a $28 million Series B round led by Insight Partners, with participation from Optum Ventures and previous investors including Tusk Venture Partners, First Round Capital, Primary Venture Partners, Sound Ventures and BoxGroup. With this funding, we look forward to doubling down on our commitment to improving access by expanding our provider network nationally, investing in product developments that drive clinical outcomes, and growing the Alma team, whose passion and dedication make all of this possible.
We’re also thrilled to welcome Martha Temple, former CEO of Optum Behavioral Health, to our Board of Directors. Martha brings a wealth of experience and strategic vision to Alma, and we look forward to working with her as we invest in deeper partnerships with our payer and employer partners and exploring new ways to improve the behavioral health system for all stakeholders — providers, clients, payers, and employers.
Critical to our mission and vision is improving quality of care alongside access. In that spirit, we’re excited to work with new advisor Esther Perel to further enhance the education opportunities available to our community and continuing to invest in technology and data that can support clinicians in delivering outcomes-based care.
We believe strongly that the key to our mission — unlocking access to the highest quality care — begins with supporting providers and ends with better mental health care for everyone. And even as we embark on a new year with hope and perseverance, we know the impact of 2020 will be lasting. We remain committed to the providers in our community and will support them and their clients in whatever comes next.
If you’re a provider looking for support in your private practice, we’d love to hear from you.
If you’re looking for a therapist or thinking about looking for a therapist, get in touch with our Client Matching team for free, one-on-one support.
And if you’re passionate about the future of high quality, affordable mental health care, we’re hiring! Visit our Careers page to see all of our open roles.
To learn more about Alma, visit us at www.helloalma.com. To stay in the loop on the latest in mental health news, research, and education, subscribe to our bi-weekly newsletter, The Digest, or follow along on Instagram at @withalma.
