Parallel Learning, a digital behavioral health startup focused on children with learning differences, raised $20 million in Series A funding.

The round was led by Tiger Global, with participation from Obvious Ventures, JAWS and Vine Ventures. The Series A builds on the company's $2.8 million seed round announced in December. 

WHAT IT DOES

Parallel Learning provides virtual assessments for mental health and learning challenges like dyslexia, dysgraphia, ADHD, depression and anxiety. Once children have a diagnosis, the startup can also help with support services like speech and language therapy or executive-function coaching.

Alongside the Series A announcement, Parallel Learning will add behavioral therapy to its list of services. Founder and CEO Diana Heldfond said the new services will help the startup more effectively serve kids with learning differences, since there's often overlap between conditions. For instance, ADHD is frequently comorbid with anxiety. 

"Kids are very complex today. A parent's not just coming saying, 'My child is struggling learning to read. I'm concerned about them. Maybe they have dyslexia, and I need to get them tested,'" she told MobiHealthNews. "They're coming saying, 'My child is struggling with reading. They can't focus. They're depressed because they haven't seen their friends in two years because of the pandemic. They're questioning their gender identity.'"

WHAT IT'S FOR

The company plans to use the funding to jump-start its nationwide rollout. Parallel Learning launched with services in New York and California, and expanded to Illinois, Texas and Florida earlier this year.

"So there's a long way to go in terms of being able to really achieve our mission of serving all the kids across America that suffer from these conditions. And this funding certainly will allow us to achieve that goal and then hire some really incredible folks on the team to both help us grow, but also think about our clinical product and our technology at the end of the day," Heldfond said.

MARKET SNAPSHOT

Other digital health companies focused on pediatric behavioral health include Brightline, which recently scooped up $105 million in funding; Daybreak Health, which recently raised $10 million; and Little Otter, which snagged $22 million in January. Last week, Polygon emerged from stealth with $3.6 million in seed funding to offer virtual evaluations for learning differences like ADHD and dyslexia.

Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic took a toll on the mental health of children and teens and exacerbated existing access issues. One survey conducted in September and October 2020 found nearly two-thirds of U.S. parents said their child had recently faced a mental or emotional challenge like isolation, anxiety, or trouble concentrating. Half of teens questioned said they had faced similar issues.

Parallel Learning focuses on partnering with school districts, and many schools struggled to assess students for special education services as they went remote. 

"There is such a crazy backlog still from the early days of COVID, in which these kids were not getting tested. Schools are scrambling to try to figure out just how to get this initial diagnosis done, much less provide the services," Heldfond said. "I would say that special education students or these higher needs students are disproportionately affected by the pandemic because they really have just had services cut off."