Kaiser Permanente Ventures and Samsung Next invested in the digital mental health treatment developer through a series B round that will fund product development and commercialisation.

US-based mental health treatment developer Big Health has secured $39m in a series B round featuring Kaiser Permanente Ventures and Samsung Next, subsidiaries of healthcare provider Kaiser Permanente Ventures and electronics producer Samsung.

Healthcare investment firm Gilde Healthcare and venture capital firm Morningside Ventures co-led the round, which included VC firm Octopus Ventures.

Janke Dittmer, a general partner at Gilde, is joining Big Health’s board of directors along with Morningside partner Isaac Cheng. Liz Rockett, director at Kaiser Permanente Ventures, already has a board seat.

Big Health provides digital therapeutics consisting of scalable and automated cognitive behavioural programs for anxiety and worry in addition to difficulties with sleeping. More than 12 million people have access to the company’s products through employee benefits or the UK’s National Health Service.

The funding will be used for product development in addition to increasing commercialisation of Big Health’s offering and growing its distribution system.

Octopus Ventures led a $12m round for Big Health in 2016 that included Kaiser Permanente Ventures, JamJar Investments, Sean Duffy, Esther Dyson and Peter Read.

The company had previously raised $515,000 from Sean Duffy, Peter Read and Gi Fernando in 2012 and another $3.3m from VC firm Index Ventures and VC fund and startup studio Forward Partners two years later.

Robert Lavine

Robert Lavine is special features editor for Global Venturing.