Iris Telehealth Files for IPO Following $40M Series B Funding Round

Headquartered in Austin, the capital of Texas, Iris Telehealth is the only telepsychiatry team certified by The Joint Commission. Through collaborations with health systems, hospitals, and community health centers, the company has secured policy approvals in approximately 50 states and established partnerships with nearly 200 healthcare organizations, becoming a leading provider of remote mental health care in the United States.

On April 14, 2022, Iris Telehealth announced the completion of a $40 million Series B financing round, led by Concord Health Partners, with continued support from its initial investor, Union Bay Capital.

Why Has This Internet Healthcare Platform Earned Such Trust and Support from Customers and Investors? Let’s Examine Its Core Competencies.

Iris Telehealth was founded by Dr. Tarik Shaheen, a graduate of the University of Virginia (UVa) School of Medicine. Specializing in child psychiatry, Dr. Shaheen holds medical licenses in seven U.S. states and is board-certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.

Founder Tarik Shaheen

As a leader in telemedicine, UVa provided Dr. Shaheen with his first opportunity to engage in telepsychiatry. Recalling his time on campus, Dr. Shaheen stated that “psychiatry, technology, and people” are his three great passions, which ignited his enthusiasm when he first ventured into the field of telepsychiatry.

After five years of persistent in-depth exploration, practical challenges such as the niche nature of telemedicine technology and the shortage of psychiatrists began to emerge. Driven by a combination of personal interest and these prevailing circumstances, Dr. Shaheen’s entrepreneurial spirit was ignited, leading him to establish Iris Telehealth—a company dedicated to providing remote mental health services.

According to statistics from the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), there are approximately 100,000 new cases of psychosis in the United States each year. These disorders typically onset during adolescence; however, with societal development, mental health issues have begun to affect people’s lives in diverse ways. Research indicates that although there is no single specific cause for psychosis, early diagnosis and treatment by healthcare professionals can lead to better recovery outcomes for patients.

“Face-to-face consultation” has long been a commonly used therapeutic approach for mental disorders in hospitals and related healthcare institutions, playing an indelible role in human mental health management. However, issues such as the misuse of psychiatric medications, unequal distribution of medical resources, disparities in regional technical capabilities, stigma surrounding mental illness, cultural and linguistic differences, and clinician care burnout are undermining the positive impact of traditional treatment modalities.

On the other hand, internet-based telepsychiatry is beginning to remotely provide mental health services to patients via video conferencing technology. Can this innovative smart healthcare model “rise to the occasion” and take up the baton in safeguarding “human mental health and hygiene”? The following section compares these two forms of treatment:

A Comparison of Two Psychiatric Treatment Modalities

Iris Telehealth partners with healthcare organizations such as community mental health centers, community health centers, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), and hospitals to provide remote psychiatrists based on patient assessment reports generated by these partner organizations. These services include consultations, prescription management, treatment, and follow-up care. The specific process for the initial consultation is as follows:

Initial Consultation Process Provided by Iris Telehealth

Unlike other telepsychiatry service providers such as BetterHelp and Prairie Health, where patients independently select their consulting physicians, Iris Telehealth does not offer services directly to individual consumers. Rather than allowing patients to choose unfamiliar counselors based on personal preference or physician resumes, matching patients with remote psychiatrists through professional clinical assessment reports is more scientific and accurate. This approach also facilitates regional health organizations in implementing standardized mental health management.

Notably, to improve the match between patients and psychiatrists, Iris Telehealth has internationalized its physician team, aiming to mitigate the negative impact of language and cultural differences on healthcare services.

A survey by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) clearly shows that only one in every 20 Hispanic individuals with mental disorders receives mental health services from specialists. This is because only 6% of mental health service providers in the United States are Hispanic, and merely 5.5% are capable of providing services in Spanish.

Accordingly, the company has opted to remotely provide patients with mental health counselors who share their cultural background and language, aiming to enhance patient proactivity in seeking treatment while reducing feelings of loneliness and stigma during therapy. This is an aspect that traditional mental health services fail to address, yet it is often easily overlooked.

In addition, Iris Telehealth places greater emphasis on providing professional technical support to organizations in need of mental health care, rather than selling related teleconsultation equipment.

The health services they provide impose no technical requirements on software platforms or devices, and partners are encouraged to leverage existing infrastructure—such as tablets, laptops, or e-prescribing platforms—for technical integration. This approach aims to lower the barrier to technology adoption and reduce costs, thereby fostering mutual benefits and sustaining a stable, long-term partnership.

By providing remote psychiatric care teams, Iris Telehealth has delivered psychiatric services to over 1.5 million patients; among the more than 200 U.S. healthcare organizations it has partnered with, 92% of clients have chosen to maintain their partnerships. Consequently, the company has also begun promoting service offerings related to its clinical operations team. This initiative provides partners with end-to-end support—from physician benefits to credentialing and licensure—in the form of customized remote psychiatry departments.

Therefore, for Iris, which has just secured tens of millions of dollars in financing, this is an opportune time to strengthen its clinical and operational teams, expand its product and technological capabilities, and broaden its commercialization plans.

Amid the ongoing pandemic, the advantages of internet-based remote services have become fully apparent. Iris Telehealth aims to leverage this opportunity to enhance and expand its mental health service offerings, recruit more high-quality psychiatrists willing to work remotely, and provide professional and appropriate mental healthcare services to residents in a wider range of regions.

To narrow the global gap in the quality of mental health services, the World Health Organization (WHO) emphasized in its *Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013–2020* that all countries must achieve the provision of comprehensive, integrated, and responsive mental health and social care services in community-based settings by 2020.

China has also maintained firm commitment to mental health reform.

Selected Initiatives in China’s Mental Health Services Sector

However, the ambitious “Central Government-Supported Local Project for the Management and Treatment of Severe Mental Disorders” has yet to establish a mature, comprehensive, community-based mental health system for patients with severe mental disorders. According to the results of the China Mental Health Survey, among the surveyed patients with mental disorders, 8% sought professional help from general healthcare organizations, and 5% consulted mental health professionals (primarily hospital-based psychiatrists), but only 0.5% received complete diagnosis and treatment.

Consistent with Iris Telehealth’s industry analysis, the National Health Commission has explicitly pointed out that China is facing challenges such as uneven distribution of mental health resources, varying levels of professionalism among clinical staff, poor medication control and follow-up compliance, and significant difficulties in providing medical insurance coverage for common mental disorders. To date, remote and economically underdeveloped regions still lack mental health professionals, and nearly 70% of county-level areas do not have specialized psychiatric medical teams.

Therefore, whether China can successfully complete mental health reform depends on its ability to effectively address multiple challenges. These include, but are not limited to:

• Enhance awareness of the demand for mental health services in China

• Integrate mental health services into the general medical insurance system

• Addressing the shortage and uneven distribution of the professional healthcare workforce

• Increase financial support

• Address other issues unique to China

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The challenges are immense. Social progress has underscored the reliance on mental health services while exacerbating contradictions within the existing healthcare system. Based on the current situation, tele-mental health services represent a viable option for addressing these challenges. Whether telepsychiatry can break through existing barriers and seize the opportunities arising from this transformation warrants continued reflection by mental health professionals and industry innovators in China.