Pace, a Los Angeles-based mental health care startup, has raised $13 million in Series A funding to help people connect through a global mental health support network.
The funding round was led by Pace Capital, with participation from Sequoia and BoxGroup, bringing the total funding raised by the startup to $18 million after the completion of its seed funding round earlier this year. Jordan Cooper, General Partner at Pace Capital, referred to the firm’s participation in the round by stating:
“People, employers and insurers are starting to sound the alarm about the health impacts of loneliness, and the resulting impacts to productivity and the economy. The team at Pace uses a mix of technology and humanity to address this loneliness epidemic. They are building a new model for building a network while promoting personal development and mental wellbeing.”
The startup was co-founded in 2020 by Bettina Elling, Jack Chou, Cat Lee, and Alex Shye with the mission to become the modern support system, allowing its users to grow personally with the help of a support network. The startup achieves this by bringing 7 strangers together into Pace Groups that meet for 90-minutes on a weekly basis with the support of world-class facilitators, opening a space to complement therapy or other mental health services. Cat Lee, COO of Pace, said about this mission:
“We believe in the power of emotional connection; a Pace Group is intended to fill a different role in people’s overall social mental health. Pace Groups offer the type of relationship and support you can only get from your peers, and these peer relationships are just as, if not more, critical to a person’s overall well being. Pace is for everyone, whether you already go to therapy or just want to connect with a supportive group of people in a way that will inspire and re-energize you.”
With multiple factors like social networks, social distancing, declining physical communities, and more affecting how people interact with each other, experts have found that 61% of Americans feel lonely regularly. Pace is taking advantage of the increasing relevance and demand for telehealth platforms, bringing users interested in improving their mental health together at an affordable price and with the convenience of video chat.
