Siblings can make good startup cofounders, like Stripe’s Collison brothers. But what about a mother-daughter duo?
It’s working for Rebecca Egger and her mom Dr. Helen Egger, who cofounded virtual mental health startup Little Otter in 2020. “[T]he reason we can do this is because we’ve both done a lot of therapy,” Rebecca, the company’s CEO, joked.
In fact, her mother, Helen Egger, is a child psychiatrist and serves as Little Otter’s Chief Medical and Scientific Officer. Part of the inspiration for the startup, Rebecca shared, was hearing people constantly ask her mom the same question about their kids: Should I worry? “Everywhere that I went with her when people found out what she did, they would say, ‘Should I worry about my child’s behavior? Is this normal? Is this not?’ And then the next question is, ‘Where do I go for help?’”
With Little Otter, Egger and her mom believe they can help parents answer that question using a combination of AI and their team of therapists, psychiatrists, and other specialists, trained in-house.
The San Francisco-based company is focused on full family care, offering mental health support services to young children, teenagers, parents, and everyone in between. To start, prospective patients schedule a kickoff session and take a mental health checkup, which evaluates all family members. From there, families are matched with a provider, and they begin sessions. Patients receive feedback after each session and retake the checkup survey every three months, giving them real insight into their progress.
Now, Fortune can exclusively report, Little Otter has raised $9.5 million in funding from investors including Pivotal Ventures, Torch Capital, Springbank, CRV, Next Legacy, G9, Gratitude Railroad, and Carrie Walton Penner through Fiore Ventures. This follows the company’s $4.2 million seed round in 2021 and $22 million Series A in 2022.
With the new funding, Egger is hoping to build out its AI triage platform. “Our original thesis has always been early identification will lead to less overall cost and less future negative impact to families,” Egger shared. According to Egger, mental health disorders can be spotted in kids as young as one year old.
23,000 families have taken Little Otter’s checkup and signed up for care services so far. And this week, the company surpassed 100,000 total care visits; 56,000 of those were completed in 2024. Putting more engineering support towards developing the company’s platform will allow Little Otter to scale its care. Currently, the company operates within the U.S. and is available to both commercial and individual clients in 14 states, plus Washington, D.C. This year, Little Otter is planning to expand more into Medicaid partnerships.
Data from initial patient screenings is used to determine the type of care a family needs and who they would be best suited to work with. All sessions are recorded, with consent from the families and providers—“[W]e’re always thinking about how do we make knowledge actionable for both of these different user groups,” Egger said.
Egger sees Little Otter’s proprietary data and her and her mother’s AI expertise as a huge advantage. “[W]hat’s going to be the biggest barrier to a lot of these companies is where they get their data from,” she said. She views DeepSeek’s emergence in the AI space as a real positive. “If we can do this cheaper, the better,” Egger said. “The reality is, we don’t have so much data and our questions and models are significantly smaller that the cost is negligible for us right now. But with the cost reduction, I think it opens up so many more opportunities, because we can play more.”
See you in the deals,
Nina Ajemian
Email: nina.ajemian@fortune.com
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VENTURE DEALS
- Semgrep, a San Francisco-based application security platform, raised $100 million in Series D funding. Menlo Ventures led the round and was joined by existing investors Felicis Ventures, Harpoon Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and others.
- MagicSchool AI, a Denver-based education generative AI platform, raised $45 million in Series B funding. Valor Equity Partners led the round and was joined by Atreides Management, Smash Capital, and existing investors Bain Capital Ventures and Adobe Ventures.
- Protex AI, a Dublin-based AI-powered workplace safety solutions provider, raised $36 million in Series B funding. Hedosophia led the round and was joined by Salesforce Ventures and existing investors.
- Archive, a San Francisco-based resale services provider, raised $30 million in Series B funding. Energize Capital led the round and was joined by Woodline Partners, Frontline Growth, and existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Bain Capital Ventures, G9 Ventures, and Capital F.
- Monograph, a San Francisco-based architecture and engineering project management platform, raised $20 million in Series B+ funding from Base10 Partners.
- Ivo, a San Francisco-based AI-powered contract review platform, raised $16 million in Series A funding. Costanoa Ventures led the round and was joined by NFDG, Blackbird VC, and existing investors Fika Ventures, Uncork Capital, GD1, and Phase One Ventures.
- Beamable, a Boston-based open game server platform, raised $13.5 million in Series A funding. BITKRAFT Ventures led the round and was joined by Arca, Advancit Capital, 2Punks, and others.
- qeen.ai, a Dubai, UAE-based e-commerce AI agents platform, raised $10 million in seed funding. Prosus Ventures led the round and was joined by existing investors Wamda Capital, 10x Founders, and Dara Holdings.
- Lorikeet, a Sydney-based AI-powered customer support platform, raised $9 million in funding from Blackbird and existing investors Square Peg and Skip Capital.
- SAEKI, a Zurich-based autonomous factories company, raised $6.7 million in seed funding. Lightbird led the round and was joined by Founderful, 2100VC, Danobat, and angel investors.
- Neuralk-AI, a Paris-based commerce tabular data models developer, raised $4 million in funding. Fly Ventures led the round and was joined by StemAI, Thomas Wolf, Charles Gorintin, and others.
- Invary, a Lawrence, Kan.-based runtime integrity cybersecurity solutions provider, raised $3.5 million in seed funding from SineWave Ventures, Flyover Capital, Hyperlink Ventures, and KCRise Fund.
- Solstice Health, a New York City-based AI-powered marketing engine for life sciences, raised $3.5 million in seed funding from Twelve Below and Virtue.
- LogicStar, a Zurich-based autonomous software maintenance company, raised $3 million in pre-seed funding. Northzone led the round and was joined by Sequoia scouts and angel investors.
- GetWhys, a Boise-based AI-powered customer insights provider, raised $2.8 million in seed funding. Next Frontier Capital led the round and was joined by Tuesday Capital and Capital Eleven.
- Astra Security, a Claymont, Del.-based cybersecurity platform, raised $2.7 million in funding. Emergent Ventures led the round and was joined by Neon Fund, Better Capital, Blume Ventures, and PointOne Capital.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- Berkshire Partners acquired a majority stake in Triumvirate Environmental, a Somerville, Mass.-based sustainable environmental solutions provider for life sciences, healthcare, education, and industrial companies. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- A continuation fund managed by BlackRock and Hollyport Capital, joined by others, acquired a majority stake in and recapitalized Smile Partners, a Troy, Mich-based dental services provider.
- Cleanwater1, a portfolio company of Baird Capital, acquired Integrity Municipal Systems, a Poway, Calif.-based water and wastewater process solutions developer. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Platinum Equity acquired a majority stake in R&B Wholesale Distributors, an Ontario, Calif.-based home appliances distributor. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Radar Healthcare, a portfolio company of Marlin Equity Partners, acquired EIDO Healthcare, a West Bridgford, England-based patient information and consent provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Red Nucleus, backed by THL, acquired COEUS, a Devon, Pa.-based healthcare consulting, communications, and other services firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Trinity Hunt Partners acquired majority stakes in Craft, a Boston-based digital product design services provider, and Verndale, a Boston-based digital experience solutions provider. Financial terms were not disclosed.
EXITS
- ASGN agreed to acquire TopBloc, a Chicago-based Workday solutions provider, from BV Investment Partners. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Capitol Meridian Partners acquired a majority stake in LAUNCH, an Oak Brook, Ill.-based aviation, industrial, and ground transportation workforce solutions provider, from Argentum. Financial terms were not disclosed.
- Purolator acquired Livingston International, a Toronto-based trade consulting services firm, from Platinum Equity. Financial terms were not disclosed.
OTHER
- Corpay agreed to acquire Gringo, a São Paulo-based vehicle payments platform. Financial terms were not disclosed.
IPOS
- SailPoint, an Austin-based identity security solutions provider for enterprises, plans to raise $1.1 billion in an offering of 50 million shares (5% secondary) priced between $19 and $21 on the Nasdaq. The company posted $824 million in revenue for the year ending Oct. 31, 2024. Thoma Bravo backs the company.
FUNDS + FUNDS OF FUNDS
- Cherry Ventures, a Berlin-based venture capital firm, raised $500 million for its fifth fund focused on European companies.
PEOPLE
- AE Industrial, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based private equity firm, promoted Nathan Dickstein, Tyler Rowe, Beckett Jackson, and Laurence Vigeant-Langlois to partner; Katie Folmar to managing director, head of capital formation; Austen Dixon and Graham Kantor to principal; Zach Appleman to senior vice president, capital formation; and Chester Brown to vice president, AE Ventures.
- JLL Partners, a New York-based private equity firm, promoted Dan Di Piazza to managing director and Alex Kondziolka to principal.
