Journey, an employee-centric mental health company, is acquiring Felt, a startup formerly known as Mine'd that specializes in matching individuals with therapists using artificial intelligence. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Journey, which provides mental health employee assistance programs used by organizations such as Georgetown University and Regeneron, said the acquisition supports Journey's mission to revolutionize employee well-being and mental health support while harnessing the power of AI. states that it is in line with
Felt co-founder and CEO Aaron Albert told TechCrunch that the startup's acquisition strengthens the company's ability to make mental health support not only more accessible but more personalized. , said it was a natural progression of the company's vision.
“Partnering with Journey allows us to leverage AI-powered matching innovations at scale, allowing us to reach more individuals through their extensive network,” said Albert. “This aligns perfectly with our fundamental goal of facilitating access to effective mental health support and revolutionizing the way people connect with compatible therapists.”
Felt's technology leverages natural language processing and machine learning to analyze the factors that create a successful relationship between users and therapists. The technology considers factors such as communication styles, personality traits, and shared values to predict compatibility. Felt's technology was initially designed for consumer apps, but will be integrated into Journey's backend products.
Journey CEO and founder Stephen Sokoler told TechCrunch that Felt's technology will be integrated into the company's Proactive EAP platform. The company plans to combine Felt's existing combination of human therapists with his AI-based technology to improve employee-therapist matching. Employees on Journey's platform are provided access to master-level clinicians who, after understanding the employee's needs, combine their expertise with his Felt technology to create the perfect match. Find a doctor.
The acquisition comes more than two years after Felt raised $3.5 million in a seed funding round led by Listen Venture.
Even before the pandemic, Journey had raised $6 million in funding in multiple rounds led by Canaan Partners, Courtside Ventures, Betaworks, BDMI, HealthTech Capital and others. The company says it has grown 800% since then and has no need or plans to raise additional capital.