NextGen Venture Partners’ Post

🧠💡 Czech-founded Upheal, a mental health tech startup, just secured $3.25M for their therapy notes transcription platform. 🌟 Led by Credo Ventures, with support from KAYA VC, Inovia Capital, and angel investors, Upheal is revolutionizing clinician workflows. 💬 Co-Founder & CTO Martin Horváth emphasizes Upheal's commitment to accessible, compliant AI solutions that empower therapists of all scales. Discover what lies ahead for them!

🧠💡 Czech-founded Upheal, a mental health tech startup, just secured $3.25M for their therapy notes transcription platform. 🌟 Led by Credo Ventures, with support from KAYA VC, Inovia Capital, and angel investors, Upheal is revolutionizing clinician workflows. 💬 Co-Founder & CTO Martin Horvath emphasizes Upheal's commitment to accessible, compliant AI solutions that empower therapists of all scales. Discover what lies ahead for them!

I imagine you might be a bit like me... I'm a girl who likes a good challenge. I like being asked to really show up, solve problems, be strategic. I like working out complex problems and breaking things down into manageable pieces. I like making obscure and conceptual things practical. I love people and finding the goodness and connective space that lives in and between us. ...And when you put those things together, trauma therapy, running a clinic of amazing helpers, and trying to make the world a better place, just FIT. How about for you? What drew you into the work that you do? What keeps you there even when it gets hard? Tell me in the comments! Check out some of my resources for First Responders & Helping Professionals at #linkinbio!

Startuppers around the world know that fundraising is almost always stressful, but with 20Fund, it has truly been a pleasure 😉 . At 20Fund, we have met people who are equally interested in the social impact of the investment, the success of the startup, and the personal growth of the founders. 🙏 Thank you, 20Fund, for believing in us! You reap what you sow! This investment will be used for a clinical trial that will allow many children 👩👦👦 to receive thorough and specialized evaluations for neurodevelopmental disorders, and it will enable us to continue our mission on the study of neurodiversity 🧠 . #Fundraising #ImpactInvesting #SocialImpact #Startup #FounderWellbeing #GrowthMindset #ClinicalTrial #NeurodevelopmentalDisorders #Neurodiversity #ChildHealth #Investment #Innovation #MentalHealthAwareness

🧠💡 Czech-founded Upheal, a mental health tech startup, just secured $3.25M for their therapy notes transcription platform. 🌟 Led by Credo Ventures, with support from KAYA VC, Inovia Capital, and angel investors, Upheal is revolutionizing clinician workflows. 💬 Co-Founder & CTO Martin Horvath emphasizes Upheal's commitment to accessible, compliant AI solutions that empower therapists of all scales. Discover what lies ahead for them!

𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐅𝐮𝐧𝐝, QuantaBrain! 🤝 🧠 𝐐𝐮𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧  is a pioneering Italian startup specializing in AI-powered solutions for psychiatric care; they are on a mission to revolutionise the way mental health is approached and treated. They have developed software to identify individual neurobiomarkers for various psychiatric disorders: autism, ADHD, major depression, and bipolar disorder, based on a 1-minute magnetic resonance examination. This approach enables us to provide more accurate and earlier diagnoses and insights on the best treatment, based on individual brain characteristics. 💡 “ Our journey has been incredible. Just two years ago, our core team members, Elisa FERRARI and 𝐏𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐨 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚, were PhD students with the dream of transforming science into something tangible and accessible for patients. In this short period, Elisa, Pietro, and our invaluable co-founders, investors, and collaborators have raised a company from scratch, turned science into a product, and crafted a business plan that is attracting investments and a lot of curiosity. Today, with the support of 20Fund, we are embarking on an ambitious clinical trial to measure the benefits of early, objective, and data-driven diagnosis of Autism, based on our proprietary software. 🍀 We were introduced to 20Fund by Scientifica Venture Capital , which recognized the affinity between our visions and that of the fund. Meeting 20Fund felt like destiny—a meeting of minds where a passion for innovation and social progress became our common language. 𝐓𝐨𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫, 𝐰𝐞'𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞; 𝐰𝐞'𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭. “ 🤗 Thank you QuantaBrain team for taking some time to answer our questions. Elisa FERRARI 𝐏𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐨 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚 Hannah Teichmann Alessandro Cellerino Davide Bacciu Alessandra Retico #QuantaBrain #20Fund #Innovation #MentalHealth #AITechnology #HealthcareRevolution #ClinicalTrials #AutismResearch #SocialImpact #TechnologyForGood #ItalianInnovation #founders #investing #investinginwomen #investinginitaly #investinginsustainability #venturecapital #vc #women #womeninvc #womeninvestors #womeninventors #womensupportingwomen #womensupportingwomeninbusiness #sustainability #womenfounders #womenandenvironment #team #project #investment #business  

Thrilled to share that DarioHealth has acquired Twill (formerly known as Happify)! Here I am with one of the most brilliant minds on the business side of mental health - Ofer Leidner. If you ever get a chance to spend time with Ofer you absolutely should--I've learned more from him in hours than I could in weeks elsewhere. People overuse this term, but I’m very comfortable describing this marriage of Dario and Twill as a game changer for digital therapeutics. There are so many great reasons and advantages to this joining of forces, and I’ll be sharing more over the coming weeks and months but here are a few: •  The consumer is lost in healthcare, and both companies have a strong point of view that consumer-centricity is key, both came from deep consumer backgrounds with intuitive, personalized experiences. •  The new combination lets us take a fundamentally new approach that solves the primary problem in digital health- engagement. More on this in the coming weeks, but the standard approach that basically every digital health company uses is broken—and EVERYONE knows it—and the combination of Twill and Dario lets us take a new approach that is based on how people actually make decisions to try things and change behavior. • Twill’s solutions for emotional health and well-being span every life domain from work life and burnout to relationships and parenting with digital and human-led care for mental health needs, including maternal emotional health. • The clinical evidence for Twill’s solutions for behavioral health is extraordinary, with 3 randomized clinical trials and deep evidence for outcomes across a broad range of behavioral health domains. We're thrilled to be partnering with Ofer and Tomer Ben-Kiki and the rest of the Twill team to drive what’s been missing in digital healthcare- a consumerized, intuitive, multicondition, and highly engaging integrated solution with proven clinical and financial value. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/eYJV6Vmj #digitalhealth #digitaltherapeutics #behavioralhealth

“As a CEO, your job is to make decisions with imperfect information as quickly as possible every day. That can feel really, really hard. The point of making decisions is not to get it right, but to move forward, course-correct, and to learn. And if you can do those three things in the long term, you will get to where you want to go.” Meet Tess Isabelle Cosad, a marketer-turned-entrepreneur and CEO of London-based Béa Fertility. Béa is committed to bringing hormone-free, user-friendly fertility treatments and ovulation tracking to the home. Here’s a sneak peek into Tess’s conversation with Scott Nelson: 🎯 Make sure design is your top focus, especially when you're commercializing directly to customers. Keep things simple and easy to understand. Explain your product clearly so your audience doesn't have to guess what it's about. 👥 It's good to start with a small, flexible team. But make sure that you're not overlooking key functions that can help you hit important milestones. 💡 Fundraising is all about talking to a lot of people, and surprisingly, it doesn't get easier as you advance to larger rounds. The upside is that the more you talk about your business, the better you become at succinctly communicating what your company is all about. Check out the full interview to find out more about Tess’s journey: (link in comments) This Medsider episode was brought to you by FastWave Medical, a hot IVL startup in the cardiovascular space. Don’t miss out on their next fundraise (more details in the comments). PS - We recently launched exciting new features exclusively for Medsider premium members: ⭐ Playbooks: Go from 0 to 100 with hand-picked collections of the best Medsider interviews with the brightest founders and CEOs. ⭐ Investor database: Find your next medical device or health technology investor with our growing database of VC funds, equity investors, and high-net-worth angels.

🔍 Dissecting Feel Therapeutics’ $3.5M Mental Health Tech Pitch: The Good, The Bad, and The Fuzzy Feel Therapeutics, a startup developing wearable devices and apps for mental health tracking, recently raised $3.5 million. Let’s break down their 11-slide pitch deck: 💫 Strengths: ✔️ Compelling problem framing: Slide 3 effectively questions why we don’t track mental health like other health metrics, instantly grabbing attention. ✔️ Clear solution overview: Slide 5 provides an excellent high-level view of Feel’s platform, smartly setting context before diving into details. ✔️ Solid traction data: 2,700 patients across nine countries demonstrates meaningful scale and market validation. 💫 Areas for improvement: 🔆 Missing competitive analysis: No mention of how Feel stacks up against alternatives or potential competitors. 🔆 Vague go-to-market strategy: Lacks clear plans for scaling, target customer segments, and pricing model. 🔆 Fuzzy use of funds: Slide 10’s allocation is too vague. Investors need specific, time-bound goals for capital deployment. 🔆 Cluttered team slide: While impressive credentials are listed, roles and relevance to company success are unclear. Inclusion of investment terms on the ask slide is unusual but may work, given a lead investor is in place. The deck doesn’t address Feel’s extensive prior funding history ($30 million raised over eight rounds per PitchBook). ❗️ Lessons for founders: — Start with a compelling “hook” that frames your problem space uniquely. — Provide a clear high-level overview before diving into product specifics. — Back up traction claims with hard data, but ensure metrics are easily understood. — Always include competitive positioning—investors need to understand your edge. — Be specific about go-to-market plans and use of funds. Vagueness raises red flags. — Ensure your team slide clearly connects expertise to company needs and goals. — If you have a complex funding history, address it proactively. Explain learnings and course corrections. While Feel Therapeutics presents an intriguing product in an important space, the deck leaves several crucial questions unanswered. With tighter go-to-market strategy, clearer use of funds, and better context around team and funding history, this could be a much stronger pitch. The fact they secured $3.5 million suggests investors see significant potential in Feel’s approach to quantifying mental health, but future raises may require more comprehensive storytelling.

I want to take a moment to thank and welcome the early backers of Sentur to the team! 💜 Hristo Kosev, Boyko Iaramov , Hristo Borisov, Alexandra Mechkova, Pavel Iliev, Zoran Arsovski, Vessy Tasheva 🏳️🌈🇧🇬🇮🇪 In the early days of building Sentur, one of the pieces of feedback I used to get was : "We admire what you are working on, but it is very hard". And my answer was always : "We didn't build Sentur, because we think it is easy, but because we believed in the need and mission in what we are doing". Doing big things in life is never easy, impacting change in the society is never easy. Even your own personal journey does not transform by taking the easy way out. Change creates friction and friction is painful but is the only way to create enduring change. I will leave you with some feedback from our customers (non are solicited): ✅ "Thanks for a really well designed tool that makes this life-changing therapy more accessible and manageable!" ✅ "The designers did a mind blowing job of creating a platform where the question “what do I do between therapy sessions” has the answer. Use this app 😀" We are just scratching the surface of what can be done. We are on Step 2 out 1000 step journey! Again, thanks for all the backers and our 1000+ customers that have put their trust in us supporting them! Happy Holidays! Peace be with you all! 💜 cc: Sarah Houy, MA, LPC, RYT, BCN, Georgi Atanasov, Christina Ivanova, Ivana Dimitrova #mentalhealth #sentur