Mental health startup Amaha raises Rs 50 Cr led by Fireside Ventures

Mental health startup Amaha secured over Rs 50 crore (about $6 million) in an extended Series A funding round led by Fireside Ventures. The venture capital firm invested Rs 36.4 crore, with an additional Rs 15 crore investment coming from other investors.

The startup will use the funds to expedite its strategic expansion plans, noted Dr Amit Malik, Founder and CEO of Amaha. He added that the collaboration with the VC firm opens up opportunities for cross-sectoral collaborations.

“Amaha with their deep clinical expertise and unique business model across digital and offline clinics will be able to solve for awareness and access to a wider audience,” Ankur Khaitan, Principal at Fireside Ventures, said in a statement.

Co-founded by psychiatrist and healthcare entrepreneur Dr Malik and social entrepreneur Neha Kirpal, Amaha offers treatment and care for various mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, ADHD, OCD, schizophrenia, and addictions.

The Mumbai-based firm claims to have an in-house expert team of over 150 psychiatrists and therapists and provides therapy sessions, psychiatric care, digital self-care tools, psychometric assessments, and community peer support. 

Over the last few years, Amaha claims to have conducted over 100,000 therapy and psychiatry sessions in 15 languages across 600 Indian cities. 

In 2022, Amaha acquired and partnered with Children First, a Delhi NCR-based Child and Adolescent Mental Health Institute. Since its establishment in 2008, Children First has been offering support to over 12,000 families.

In 2021, it secured $5.2 million in funding led by Lightbox who invested $4.5 million in the company. Other investors included angels like Capricorn Ventures, Micasa Investments (Singapore), Pankaj Sahni, and Hitesh Oberoi, among others. It has raised one of India's largest investments in the mental health space.