KidsX and Vinaj Ventures are thrilled to announce a new partnership to catalyze innovation in adolescent mental wellbeing. This partnership will leverage the expertise the Vinaj Ventures team has gained through Telosity, a Vinaj Ventures Fund investing in early-stage companies improving youth mental wellbeing, to strengthen connections between KidsX members and emerging mental health and wellness innovation.
“Collaboration is critical for bringing successful, effective adolescent mental wellbeing innovations to market. The more provider organizations, like KidsX hospital members, engage and interact with early-stage companies, the sooner we will realize our goal of ensuring more adolescents have access to adequate mental health support,” said Anish Srivastava, CEO, Vinaj Ventures.
“KidsX members have seen an increase in demand for mental health services from the families they serve. We are delighted to add the expertise of the Vinaj team to the KidsX ecosystem.”, said Omkar Kulkarni, Managing Director of KidsX and Chief Innovation Officer at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
Over the past decade, the mental health of young people has been declining, with rates of depression and anxiety increasing at alarming levels. COVID-19 has exacerbated this trend—mental health-related emergency room visits increased by 31%4 during the height of the pandemic compared to the same time period in 2019. Yet, despite what is known about intervening early5, only half 6 of adolescents with a mental health disorder get the treatment they need.
Telosity emerged out of a belief that technology-driven solutions can be a critical part of the solution to reversing these trends. In the foreseeable future, there simply won’t be enough mental health professionals to meet the demand. Pure in-person interventions don’t scale well enough to serve everyone in need, but technology innovations have the potential to unlock access for a greater number of individuals, augment existing clinicians, and enhance the way care is delivered. The Telosity portfolio (pictured below) exemplifies this.
