Funding into Mental HealthTech startups drops globally this year

NEW DELHI: Global Mental HealthTech startups have seen a significant decline in funding in 2023, as the startup space saw only $713 million in funding this year, 52.5 per cent less than the $1.5 billion raised in the same period in 2022, and 79 per cent less than from $3.43 billion in 2021, a new report said on Tuesday.

According to the leading market intelligence platform Tracxn, this drop in funding is primarily due to the ongoing economic slowdown and other macroeconomic factors affecting the cash flow globally.

The global Mental HealthTech space witnessed a peak in funding of $4.7 billion in 2021. Most of the funding this year so far in this sector has come through late-stage investments, which stood at $340 million.

Further, a total of 17 acquisitions have been observed in 2023 so far, compared with 17 in the same period in 2022. This year, some of the top-performing segments globally in this space are Teleconsultation, Employee Mental Health Solutions, and Digital Therapeutics, the report said. Teleconsultation, in particular, has played a crucial role in countries like India, where there are only 0.75 psychiatrists per 100,000 population, significantly lower than European countries like Germany, which has 27 psychiatrists per 100,000 inhabitants, it added.

In terms of country-wise funding, the US has taken the lead, accounting for 82.6 per cent of the total funding of $13.6 billion to date. Mental HealthTech companies based in the US have raised $11.2 billion to date, followed by those headquartered in the UK ($749 million) and Canada ($238 million).

The US has the maximum number of companies in this space (2,360) followed by the UK (662) and India (429), the report mentioned