July 30, 2021 – Rey, a new mental health and wellness company integrating immersive tools and digital interventions with teletherapy, has today announced USD $10 million in new funding, increasing its Series A to a total of USD $26 million. The funding round was led by Optum Ventures and Oxford Sciences Innovation.
Launched in April 2021, Rey is working to improve mental health and wellness by combining cognitive behavioral therapy, talk therapy, medication, and clinically validated tech tools, such as virtual reality (VR), to care for people in new ways. Powered by OxfordVR, a spin-out of Oxford University that delivers immersive treatment tools, Rey is helping care teams to bring treatments directly to members’ homes.
Rey stated that the new funding will help the company launch its tech-enabled, on-demand mental health clinic, expand its consumer reach, and provide more people with access to care through personalized services.
“Mental and behavioral health care is rapidly becoming destigmatized, which is great. But that means there is a growing need and reliance on providers to provide this care, which may drive up costs,” said Mike Desjadon, Chief Commercial Officer of Rey. “Through our innovative digital care approach, we can flip the script and provide more personalized care at an affordable price to treat a variety of mental health needs.”
Furthermore, Rey also announced that it will absorb Oxford VR and bring to market clinically validated VR and digital treatments for Phobias, Psychosis, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Social Avoidance. The company added that potential future treatments include Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Substance Use Disorder.
OxfordVR, was founded in 2017 by Dr. Daniel Freeman, Professor of Clinical Psychology at Oxford University. Dr. Freeman studied the use of VR to help treat severe mental illness for more than two decades and is the senior scientific advisor to Rey for development of new automated therapeutics.
“With a big focus on the expansion of online mental health services, the challenge now is for companies to meet the demand,” said Deepak Gopalakrishna, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Rey. “We’re integrating validated and innovative therapeutic tools with well-trained providers to ensure people have access to the high-quality care they need while keeping costs low and preventing provider burnout.”
For more information on Rey and its immersive teletherapy solutions, please visit the company’s website.
Image credit: Rey
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Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he has been covering XR industry news for the past seven years.