AI Mental Health Startup Siggy Launches With $6 Mn in Pre-Seed Funding

Siggy aims to deliver personalized mental health care through a system that integrates human clinicians with AI tools for patient intake and support between appointments.

AI-enabled virtual mental health provider Siggy has launched out of stealth with $6 million in pre-seed funding to develop a continuous care platform combining therapy, prescription management and AI-powered patient support. The startup is backed by Village Global and several angel investors.

Siggy aims to deliver personalized mental health care through a system that integrates human clinicians with AI tools for patient intake and support between appointments. Its intake process is free, and patients pay only if they choose to proceed with treatment.

Patients begin with a free, anonymous conversation with Siggy’s AI, without requiring an account or login. The system retains their history, allowing them to avoid repeating information when they consult a provider. An AI-powered preliminary diagnosis is reviewed by clinicians, who then present treatment options.

After an initial call with a human provider, patients can log in to add existing providers or relatives to the system and confirm their treatment goals. Those who accept treatment meet a human clinician monthly and can engage with Siggy’s AI between visits.

The AI therapy agent draws on patients’ full histories to help them work through treatment goals, recall prescribed exercises and discuss their progress. It does not answer medical questions and directs patients to human providers for clinical guidance. Safety protocols are also in place to flag patients with higher-acuity needs to clinicians.

Siggy also connects with wearables and offers a one-minute daily check-in covering sleep, mood, physical well-being, and medication side effects. These inputs contribute to a daily Siggy Score, measured on a scale of 0 to 100 and visible to both patients and clinicians. The platform flags emerging patterns to clinicians, while weekly check-ins during the first two months allow providers to assess whether medication doses should be maintained, increased or changed.

“It can build a really detailed picture of you rather fast, and the idea is if there are behavior patterns that are recurrent…[Siggy can] begin to help people gain agency and recognize them before they happen,” Siggy co-founder and CEO Jonathan Sabbagh told Fierce Healthcare.

Sabbagh co-founded the company with Edvard Engesaeth, M.D., who serves as COO and previously co-founded Nurx. Daniel Montville, M.D., a Mayo Clinic-trained psychiatrist, is the company’s chief medical officer. Sabbagh previously spent two decades in finance before pursuing psychology and co-founding Journey Clinical, a US-based psychedelic-assisted therapy network.

The launch comes amid challenges with continuity in mental health treatment. About 16% of American adults take antidepressants, while one-fifth discontinue treatment before completing the recommended course. Siggy can prescribe medications, excluding controlled substances, and clinicians can oversee medication tapering when patients are ready.

The company is covered by major commercial payers across all 50 states, including Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, UnitedHealthcare and Humana. It also accepts Medicaid, Medicare and TRICARE, and offers its services free to veterans.

In the longer term, Siggy plans to use speech analytics, laboratory results, genetic testing and biomarkers to identify other conditions, including diabetes and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). It also aims to develop neural datasets to support clinical trials for technologies such as brain implants.

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