Online Therapy Platform Talkspace Raises $15M

 June 15, 2o16 |Talkspace, a New York City-based provider of an online therapy platform, raised $15 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Norwest Venture Partners, with participation from existing investors Spark Capital, Soft Bank, Metamorphic Ventures and TheTime. In conjunction with the funding Jeff Crowe, Managing Partner at Norwest Venture Partners, joined Talkspace’s Board of Directors. The company will use the funds to continue to grow operations. Talkspace provides the Unlimited Messaging Therapy program, which connects people with a licensed therapist on the web or via mobile apps featuring the ability to audio and video messages to enable users to have closer relationships with their therapists. To date, the platform has provided 300,000 people with a mental health care from almost 1,000 specialists. Talkspace is powered by IBM’s Watson, a platform that uses semantic analysis to determine things about users’ personalities. Talkspace was founded by Israelis Oren and Roni Frank in 2012.