Investment in Octave, a modern behavioral health practice, will accelerate the company’s expansion and advance technology to make mental health care more accessible for patients

San Francisco and Boston, June 16, 2023 – Novo Holdings A/S announced it co-led a $52 million (USD) investment in Octave, an outcomes-focused behavioral health care practice. The funding will accelerate Octave’s geographical expansion in the U.S. and enable the development of new technology products to better connect therapists and insurance partners.

“The demand for mental health services is higher than ever, but our mission is not just to ensure that care is accessible, but actually effective for the patient and sustainable for the mental health provider. With this raise, we’re aiming to move beyond directly facilitating care, to trying to influence how the whole system functions — how care is paid for, how it is found, and the tools we use to support it,” said Sandeep Acharya, Co-Founder and CEO of Octave.

“Our new investors bring a wealth of experience from scaling healthcare companies across the private and public markets, and we are excited to partner with them to transform mental health care,” added Acharya.

“Octave’s patient-centric model, which increases access to mental health while balancing provider objectives aligns with our strategy to invest in the health and sustainability of our communities,” said Eric Snyder, PhD, Partner in the Venture Investments group at Novo Holdings. “We are impressed by Octave’s rapid expansion, strong clinical focus, and highly experienced team.”

The round was led by Novo Holdings, Cigna Ventures, and Avidity Partners, and joined by existing institutional investors, Health Velocity Capital, Greycroft Partners, Felicis Ventures, Company Ventures, and Obvious Ventures.

Supporting an innovative model for patients, providers, and payers
Since launching in 2018, Octave has grown rapidly and today serves 18 million covered lives across seven U.S. states: California, Connecticut, Florida, New Jersey, New York, Texas, and Washington, D.C. The current locations were selected based on the critical needs for in-network mental health care – Florida, Texas and New Jersey rank among the toughest states in the U.S. to get access to care due to high cost and lack of availability, while the District of Columbia ranks the highest in the rate of need for mental health services. The company plans to expand to more states in 2023 and reach all 50 states by 2024.

Octave’s focus is to remove barriers between patients, providers, and payers: The company offers patients virtual and in-person services in welcoming environments that help reduce stigma associated with behavioral health services. With a structured assessment, it matches patients with the right therapists and designs a care plan that can include individual, couples, and family therapy. Octave helps providers, therapists, better track patient progress and negotiate insurance payments. They also design compensation packages for providers that allow them to care for patients without worrying about the overhead. Currently more than half of all therapists in the U.S. do not accept insurance, and those who do often can’t get reimbursements that make their practice sustainable. The company is pioneering relationships with payers, insurance companies, to cover a range of services and is currently considered an ‘in-network’ provider with multiple payers. With this model, costs for patients shift from an out-of-pocket expense to an insurance co-pay, making mental health care more affordable.

Octave’s leadership team combines expertise from both clinical care, and healthcare businesses. The team is unique in bringing together a wide variety of stakeholders, while executing on the outcomes that are most meaningful in the mental health space.

About Octave
Octave is a modern behavioral health practice creating a new standard for care delivery that’s both high-quality and accessible to more people. With in-person and virtual clinics, the company offers personalized care plans that can include individual, couples, and family therapy, while pioneering relationships with payers to make care more affordable through insurance. Grounded in science, Octave enables clients to experience profound change that is as measurable as it is meaningful. Learn more at www.findoctave.com

About Novo Holdings A/S
Novo Holdings is a holding and investment company that is responsible for managing the assets and the wealth of the Novo Nordisk Foundation. The purpose of Novo Holdings is to improve people’s health and the sustainability of society and the planet by generating attractive long-term returns on the assets of the Novo Nordisk Foundation.
Wholly owned by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, Novo Holdings is the controlling shareholder of Novo Nordisk A/S and Novozymes A/S and manages an investment portfolio with a long-term return perspective. In addition to managing a broad portfolio of equities, bonds, real estate, infrastructure and private equity assets, Novo Holdings is a world-leading life sciences investor. Through its Seeds, Venture, Growth, and Principal Investments teams, Novo Holdings invests in life science companies at all stages of development.
As of year-end 2022, Novo Holdings had total assets of EUR 108 billion.
www.novoholdings.dk