Of the millions of new mothers in the U.S. every year, about 70% struggle with mental health, but only 15% get the care that they need. In fact, maternal mental health conditions result in $9.5 billion of additional health expenditures for mothers and babies, and maternal mental health conditions have the highest medical and nonmedical cost of any maternal morbidity. Needless to say, this is a huge problem, but the biggest barriers to care aren’t what you’d think. Many new moms don’t even seek care because they feel ashamed, scared, and isolated.
Beta Boom’s latest investment, Canopie, doesn’t just offer evidence-based digital therapeutics for postpartum depression and anxiety, it gives new moms hope and a critical first step to getting care with its compassion-based patient experience. Canopie helps mothers identify early signs of depression and anxiety, overcome the shame and stigma standing in the way of help, and get evidence-based care on their smartphones. Canopie’s mission is to both help new moms struggling with mental health and to intervene early, so they might avoid more rigorous and costly care later.
The company is led by Anne Wanlund and Ann Don Bosco who bring close to two decades of combined experience tackling mental, maternal, and child health issues. Anne was working on maternal and child health, mostly in East Africa, for the past 5 years and lived the problem she is now solving. Once she returned to the U.S., she failed to find effective solutions for her postpartum struggles. Ann was Head of Strategy for Public Health England, where she led campaigns and programs for behavioral change around mental health and public health issues.
Canopie is seeing tremendous growth from interested health networks and moms alike. Most importantly, their program is showing significant outcomes. In a randomized control trial, 79% of participants with possible symptoms of depression had a clinically significant change in their mood by using their program. Additionally, over 98% of their users reported a positive change in emotional health. Canopie has previously been featured at the Maternal Health Innovation Summit and launched a partnership in 2021 with Mayor Muriel Bowser of DC to provide free access to its platform to all moms.
If you would like to learn more about Canopie or to get connected to the founders for potential partnership opportunities, please don’t hesitate to reach out.