There has been a resurgence in the debate about the clinical use of Psychedelic therapies or psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAP). There’s been increased legalization of substances and ketamine has been the most-studied psychedelic drug for its promising response to treating mental health conditions especially when it comes to healing patients from past trauma as well as anxiety and depression. Journey Clinical is a marketplace that connects licensed mental health professionals with patients seeking care to provide psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy starting with ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. The company focuses on a collaborative care model to unlock a new care pathway for patients for whom traditional pharmacological routes have not worked. For psychotherapists on the platform, Journey Clinical has built the framework to administer these frontier treatments in their practices through education, training, and peer support resources. For patients, the platform handles eligibility, prescriptions, and the development of treatment plans. Since launching a year ago, Journey has attracted 700+ providers that have treated 1000+ patients.
AlleyWatch caught up with Journey Clinical Cofounder and CEO Jonathan Sabbagh to learn more about the business, the company’s strategic plans, latest round of funding, and much, much more…
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
Our Series A marked an additional $8.5M in funding led by Union Square Ventures with participation from AlleyCorp, Fifty Years, Able Partners, Gaingels, Palo Santo, PsyMed Ventures, Coalition Partners, Mystic Ventures, Colibri, Satori Capital, and other notable angel investors. This round brings Journey Clinical’s total funding to ~$12M.
Tell us about the product or service that Journey Clinical offers.
Journey Clinical is on a mission to transform the growing mental health crisis by accelerating the adoption of frontier treatments that lead to lasting improvements in clinical outcomes. We have built a turnkey healthtech platform to safely and effectively expand access to a powerful modality known as Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy, the supervised use of psychedelics as an adjunct to psychotherapy. We have started with Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) and will expand to other psychotherapeutic treatments in the future as they continue to be validated, researched, and approved for broad use by the FDA. As a two-sided marketplace, Journey Clinical’s platform serves both licensed mental health professionals and eligible patients. For psychotherapists, our platform gives them everything they need to become empowered KAP providers in their own practice: on-demand access to a world-class medical team, in-depth KAP education and training opportunities, access to a community of peers, and a robust library of professional resources. For patients, Journey Clinical’s KAP-trained medical team takes on all medical activities, including eligibility, prescriptions and treatment plan. This collaborative-care approach enables higher standards of care and enhanced clinical outcomes.
What inspired the start of Journey Clinical?
We are in the middle of a staggering mental health crisis, one that has been exacerbated since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, 1 in 5 adults in the US lives with a form of mental illness, and treatment-resistant conditions are on the rise: approximately 30% of people diagnosed with major depressive disorder are resistant to conventional treatments. Despite the 41+ million people engaged in psychotherapy, existing treatments often do not provide lasting relief or long-term improvements in quality of life. With limited innovation in psychiatry over the last 50 years and a growing US psychiatrist shortage, new interventions with profound, sustainable impact are urgently needed.
At Journey Clinical, we are on a mission to transform the mental health crisis by accelerating the adoption of frontier treatments to provide patients with lasting improved outcomes. We have built a turnkey healthtech platform to safely and effectively expand access to a powerful modality, known as Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy (PAP), which focuses on the supervised use of psychedelic medicines as an adjunct to psychotherapy.
Before we founded Journey Clinical, there was limited opportunity for patients to reliably and affordably access these transformative treatments. Similarly, it was a cumbersome and challenging process for interested psychotherapists to offer these treatments as an adjunct to therapy. Journey Clinical has built a unique platform anchored in a patient-centered collaborative care model that honors the relationship between psychotherapists and patients, while making PAP significantly more accessible.
How is Journey Clinical different?
Before Journey Clinical, accessing Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy was very difficult for patients. Ketamine treatment is expensive and inaccessible to most patients (IV clinics can cost thousands of dollars per treatment). Moreover, ketamine treatment usually takes place outside the context of psychotherapy. Journey Clinical provides patients with a turnkey treatment option that allows them to access both the medical care and the psychotherapy safely and effectively.
- Instead of hiring mental health practitioners, we empower millions of independent practitioners in the US to offer psychedelic therapy treatments in their own practice. By bringing psychedelic-assisted therapy to existing therapist-patient relationships, we make KAP more accessible and effective for people who need it. This is a game changer for practitioners who lack the infrastructure to offer these types of treatments. In addition, this model allows psychotherapists to keep all of their revenue and grow their business.
- Our patient-centered collaborative care model allows us to provide a high quality of care at scale in an unprecedented way: licensed psychotherapists in the network take on the psychotherapy, while Journey Clinical’s in-house medical team takes on patient eligibility, treatment plan and outcome monitoring.
There is a psychiatrist shortage in the US, in addition to a lack of psychedelics-informed prescribers. At Journey Clinical, we have a world-class, in-house medical team trained in Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy led by Dr. Kyle Lapidus, MD PhD, world expert in ketamine treatment.
What market does Journey Clinical target and how big is it?
Currently, 1.3M independent psychotherapists (including licensed mental health professionals such as Psychologists, Licensed Psychotherapists, Social Workers) lack access to ketamine prescribing doctors to offer KAP to their patients. Meanwhile, 50M+ patients lack access to vetted independent KAP providers (leading them to go to ketamine chain clinics instead of working with their existing psychotherapist).
We are currently operating in 7 states across the US and in the process of expanding across the nation as we build out our medical team of prescribers.
What’s your business model?
We charge a membership fee of $200/month to psychotherapists, which gives them access to our platform, enabling them to deliver KAP in their practice. Our offering includes on-demand access to a world-class medical team, in-depth KAP education and training opportunities, access to a community of peers, and a robust library of professional resources. On the patient side, we charge $250 for a one-time medical intake session and $150 for follow-up sessions. We do not make any money from the ketamine itself, keeping costs to a minimum for the patient.
We charge a membership fee of $200/month to psychotherapists, which gives them access to our platform, enabling them to deliver KAP in their practice. Our offering includes on-demand access to a world-class medical team, in-depth KAP education and training opportunities, access to a community of peers, and a robust library of professional resources. On the patient side, we charge $250 for a one-time medical intake session and $150 for follow-up sessions. We do not make any money from the ketamine itself, keeping costs to a minimum for the patient.
How are you preparing for a potential economic slowdown?
At Journey Clinical, we provide high-quality mental health treatment at scale during a time when mental health challenges are more prevalent than ever. The need for effective mental health care is tremendous — the market size being more than 50 million people and growing, and the number of people in therapy now being ~40 million. We see an overwhelming need for the service we provide.
We’ve been able to operate at a lean capacity and ensure high growth over the last quarter in the midst of a market downturn. Our raise allows us to have sufficient runway to continue to grow the organization. As founders, we understand the importance of remaining lean as we have been able to do successfully since launching at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the market downturn, we were able to raise capital from a Tier 1 investor, giving us confidence to continue to scale and maintain ambitious growth targets.
What was the funding process like?
Our most recent round was an $8.5M Series A. We had a tremendous amount of interest: we were oversubscribed and proud to have partnered with Union Square Ventures as the lead. This is truly a testament to the quality of our model and the need to build effective, scalable mental health solutions.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
Every fundraise is challenging in its own way, often an exercise of handling rejection with grace. In addition, we were raising during a market downtown, which was challenging in and of itself – the overall mood of investors was conservative at best. In spite of this, we ended up with a tremendous amount of interest: we were oversubscribed this round and successfully raised this round with Union Square Ventures as the lead. This is truly a testament to the quality of our model and the need to build effective, scalable mental health solutions.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
As Rebecca Kaden wrote in USV’s thesis about Journey Clinical:
“In the face of this, PAP (psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy) stands out as a transformational opportunity. PAP centers on therapists utilizing psychedelics in their work with patients. Clinical trials, which now number in the thousands, show outsized outcomes that are both effective for patients with conditions that are resistant to other treatments and significantly longer lasting.
The opportunity around PAP and USV’s thesis around powerful networks that are transformational to the markets they are built in led us to Journey Clinical. Journey is building a decentralized clinic and B2B marketplace, empowering psychotherapists to provide psychedelic therapies to their patients. The platform provides training, community, and support for its therapist members as well as access to a safe and thorough prescribing network for their patients. Patients can in turn now access new treatment options through their existing trusted providers in a safe and supervised way. Today, this means the network of Journey therapists is able to utilize ketamine for KAP (ketamine-assisted psychotherapy), which has been an FDA-approved drug for decades and has emerged as an important option for treating depression. As the tested and approved therapies expand–with MDMA and psilocybin deep in clinical trials and showing very promising results–Journey’s offering will, too.”
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
In the next six months, we plan to continue a rapid increase in our platform growth and usage. We already have strong client acquisition and retention for psychotherapists and patients alike, and will work to sustain and improve our metrics while continuing to build out a compelling offering that addresses the needs of our stakeholders. We are also looking to hire for a number of key roles, including leadership roles.
In the next six months, we plan to continue a rapid increase in our platform growth and usage. We already have strong client acquisition and retention for psychotherapists and patients alike, and will work to sustain and improve our metrics while continuing to build out a compelling offering that addresses the needs of our stakeholders. We are also looking to hire for a number of key roles, including leadership roles.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
The first piece of advice that I would offer is to focus on remaining lean and keeping burn down as we head into increasingly challenging market conditions.
The next is to maintain the resilience and relentlessness to keep going through the process of speaking to investors. Every founder goes through the difficult process of rejection. I would focus on taking that rejection, waking up the next morning, and keep going. Finding routines in your life that allow you to feel rejection or difficult emotions can help, and remembering that you’re not alone–rejection is a part of the process of being a founder, and you have to keep going.
Finally, it is really important to believe in your mission, yourself, and having faith in your ability to build an amazing business. Not only will this mindset help you, but it’s also something that really resonates with investors too.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
We have established ourselves as the #1 solution for enabling mental health professionals to incorporate Psychedelic-Assisted Psychotherapy in their practice at scale. We see ourselves cementing our position as the market leader in the space, and continuing to grow to provide these treatments to as many eligible patients as possible.
What’s your favorite restaurant in the city?
Shoo Shoo by my good friend Albert Bitton.
