Artificial intelligence (AI) firm, Limbic, has raised $14m to bring its therapy software to the US market.
The clinical assessment chatbot is designed to increase access to mental health services. Limbic said that it had secured the funds as part of a push to bring the AI-powered system into the US healthcare system after seeing success in the UK, with one study finding the system produced a significant increase in mental health referrals among minority groups.
According to Limbic, the AI mental health tool has been used by more than 260,000 patients across the UK as part of the National Health Service (NHS) Talking Therapies service, with a study published in the journal, Nature Medicine, finding that the service saw a 179% increase among people who identified as non-binary, 39% for Asian and 40% for black patients.
At the same time, Limbic says its AI system was able to produce significant time savings among clinicians, with 50,000 hours of clinician time returned across Limbic’s current usage in the NHS.
Ross Harper, CEO and co-founder of Limbic said: “The global behavioural healthcare sector is grappling with a critical workforce supply challenge. Care providers are experiencing burnout, and services are stretched thin, operating on slim margins.
“Our recent funding reaffirms our commitment to scaling impactful, safe, and regulatory-compliant mental health AI solutions. Our AI was developed to enhance the capabilities of human clinicians, amplify their expertise, and extend high-quality care to meet everyone's needs.
“We’ve also bolstered business outcomes for service providers and assisted in increasing workforce capacity thanks to increased operational performance.”
The funding round of $14m was led by venture capital firm, Khosla Ventures, with participation from new investors including Gaingels, an LGBTQIA+/Allies investment syndicate. The investment arrives after Limbic’s tool for predicting mental health disorders became the first ChatBot to secure a Class IIa UKCA (UK Conformity Assessed) medical device certification.
Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures, said: “There is a grave shortage of mental healthcare providers across the globe. AI will allow us to realize the potential of near-free access to such care for everyone, independent of provenance and socioeconomic status. Limbic is at the forefront of this important and ambitious goal, and we are proud to partner with them."
