Ginger Announces $50 Million in Series D Funding to Expand Access to the World's First On-Demand Mental Healthcare System

Ginger, the leader in on-demand mental healthcare, today announced a $50 million Series D funding round led by Advance Venture Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners. Additional participants include Cigna Ventures and existing investors such as Jeff Weiner, Executive Chairman of LinkedIn, and Kaiser Permanente Ventures. This latest round of investment brings the company's total funding to over $120 million.

Millions of people have access to Ginger through the company's partnerships with innovative employers, health plans, and strategic partners. Today, over 200 companies ranging from startups to Fortune 100s, including Delta Air Lines, Sanofi, Chegg, Domino's, SurveyMonkey, and Sephora, partner with Ginger to cost-efficiently provide employees with high-quality mental healthcare. Ginger members can also access virtual therapy and psychiatry sessions as an in-network benefit through the company's relationships with leading regional and national health plans, including Optum Behavioral Health, Anthem California, and Aetna Resources for Living.

"At Cigna Ventures, we are committed to investing in bold, new ways to make high-quality healthcare simpler and more affordable," said Sahil Choudhry, Managing Director, Cigna Ventures. "We believe that Ginger is well positioned to make this a reality in mental healthcare and look forward to supporting their efforts to expand access to this innovative model."

With this funding round, Ginger has added David ibnAle and Steve Kraus to its Board of Directors:

• David ibnAle is a Founding Partner of Advance Venture Partners (AVP), an investment firm built in partnership with Advance, a family-owned holding company with a diversified portfolio of exceptional media and technology companies. David has over 20 years of experience investing in enterprise and consumer technology companies and currently sits on the boards of high-growth software companies such as Affinity, PebblePost and Morning Consult.
• Steve Kraus is a Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners and leads their healthcare investment practice. He currently sits on the boards of leading digital health companies such as Bright Health, Hinge Health, Artemis Health, Groups and Welltok. Steve has been recognized by Forbes as one of the top healthcare investors in the industry.

"AVP invests in companies that are using technology to tackle large-scale, global challenges and transform traditional businesses and business models," said David ibnAle, Founding Partner of Advance Venture Partners. "Ginger is doing just that. We are excited to partner with an exceptional team to help make high-quality, on-demand mental healthcare a reality for millions more people around the world."

This announcement comes at a time when the world's mental health crisis has reached an all-time high following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Ginger's 2020 Workforce Attitudes Toward Mental Health Report, nearly 70 percent of U.S. workers believe this is the most stressful period of their careers, including major events like the September 11 terror attacks, the 2008 Great Recession and others. Ginger has observed record-high demand for mental health support; during July 2020, weekly utilization rates were 125% higher for coaching and 265% higher for therapy and psychiatry when compared to pre-COVID-19 averages.

By delivering evidence-based behavioral health coaching, therapy and psychiatry right from a smartphone, Ginger is the only end-to-end telemental health provider designed to meet this skyrocketing demand at a fraction of the cost of traditional care. Ginger is uniquely:

• On-demand, anywhere: On average, members in 30 countries around the world can text with a Ginger behavioral health coach within 44 seconds, 24/7, 365 days per year; first available video appointments with a therapist or psychiatrist are available on average within 10.5 hours.
• Measurement-based: The company's proprietary collaborative care model has been proven to be more than twice as effective as standard therapeutic interventions; 70 percent of people using Ginger experience an improvement in their depression symptoms within 10-14 weeks.
• Loved by members: Ginger members give an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars after each session.

The company recently announced the formation of the Ginger Advisory Board, bringing together world renowned experts from MIT, Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Washington to advance mental health research and innovation.

"Our mental healthcare system has long been inadequate. But in the midst of a worldwide pandemic and a tumultuous sociopolitical climate, we're facing uncharted territory," said Russell Glass, CEO, Ginger, "People are demanding better care, and the largest payers of healthcare are recognizing the need to respond. Ginger is uniquely able to reverse the course of this crisis at scale. With this investment, we can accelerate our work to deliver incredible mental healthcare at a fraction of the cost to the hundreds of millions of people around the world who deserve it."

About Ginger

At Ginger, we believe that everyone deserves access to incredible mental healthcare. Our on-demand system brings together behavioral health coaches, therapists, and psychiatrists, who work as a team to deliver personalized care, right through your smartphone. The Ginger app provides members with access to the support they need within seconds, 24/7, 365 days a year. Millions of people have access to Ginger through leading employers, health plans, and our network of partners. Ginger has been recognized by The World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer and by Fast Company as one of the Most Innovative Companies in Healthcare. Learn more about our vision to build a world where mental health is never an obstacle at ginger.io.