There has been a resurgence in the debate about the clinical use of Psychedelic therapies or psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAP). There’s been increased legalization of substances and ketamine has been the most-studied psychedelic drug for its promising response to treating mental health conditions especially when it comes to healing patients from past trauma. Journey Clinical is a prescription service that allows Psychotherapists to offer ketamine-assisted psychotherapy to unlock a new care pathway for patients for whom traditional pharmacological routes have not worked. Psychedelics are said to increase suggestibility, making patients more open to concepts brought up in therapy as well as resulting in neurotransmitter changes causing an improvement in mood.
AlleyWatch caught up with Journey Clinic CEO Jonathan Sabbagh to learn more about the company’s mission to make psychedelic therapy more accessible and mainstream, how his personal journey overworked in finance led the AHA moment, strategic plans, latest round of funding, and much, much more…
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
$3M seed round was led by San Francisco VC firm Fifty Years with participation from Neo Kuma Ventures, Palo Santo, PsyMed Ventures, Lionheart Ventures, Christina Sass cofounder of Andela, Edvard Engesæth, MD cofounder of Nurx and, Hans Gangeskar, cofounder of Nurx. No board seat was awarded.
Tell us about the product or service that Journey Clinical offers.
Journey Clinical is building the #1 platform in the US to empower licensed psychotherapists nationwide to include legal psychedelic-assisted psychotherapies (PAP) in their practice starting with ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP). Our decentralized clinic model brings KAP to the existing therapist-patient relationships. Thanks to Journey Clinical, 1M+ licensed mental health professionals in the U.S. can now partner with Journey Clinical’s in-house medical team to start offering KAP in their practice. Journey Clinical takes care of the medicine while Journey member psychotherapists take care of the psychotherapy. Our collaborative care model provides a robust care management system and optimizes clinical outcomes for patients.
What inspired the start of Journey Clinical?
I cofounded Journey Clinical with my wife Myriam Barthes, following profound healing experiences with psychedelics.
I spent the first 20 years of my career, in finance where I built two businesses from the ground up. While building the first, I suffered a burnout leading me to try a range of different psychotherapies – both pharmacological and non-pharmacological. All with relatively limited success.
Five years ago, I was introduced to traditional Ayahuasca ceremonies followed by a course of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP). The effect of these medicines were profound, and I decided to get back to school to study clinical psychology.
On my path to becoming a clinician, I found the need to integrate my background as an entrepreneur with his long-term goal of becoming a clinician. I recognized that there was a clear need to expand access to potentially transformative psychedelic-assisted psychotherapies.
And so, Journey Clinical was born.
How is Journey Clinical different?
Journey Clinical is the first of its kind service. We allow member psychotherapists to incorporate ketamine-assisted psychotherapy in their practice as an adjunct to therapy rather than compete against them. Our model allows patients to work with their existing therapists rather than being referred out.
What market does Journey Clinical target and how big is it?
- S. Psychotherapist population approx. $1.3 M
- S. Patient population suffering from anxiety or depression 100M +
What’s your business model?
Psychotherapists pay us a $200 monthly membership fee which gives them access to a number of services including and guaranteed access to our prescriber, an EHR (achieved through a white label), a KAP training (training materials created by a specialized training company), a profile on our directory, and a community of peers.
Patients pay us for medical services. They pay $250 for the intake consultation and $150 for follow-up consultations.
What are your post-COVID office plans?
We are a fully remote company for the time being.
What was the funding process like?
Intense! But thanks to having most of our investors following on from our prior round and having put in substantial effort into speaking with multiple investors, we were able to secure a top-tier lead investor and close an oversubscribed round within two months.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
The early stage of the sector makes some investors question the mass adoption of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, which I feel was the main hurdle to overcome during some of these meetings.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
- The quality of the team
- the traction we were able to secure in a very short period
- the scalability of our solution
- the massive market size
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
- Do the work upfront map out the investor landscape, identify the investors whose thesis and portfolio best match your company
- Do not be discouraged by the no’s; learn from them and keep on keeping on.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
I believe we have the opportunity to define the landscape for how psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is delivered. The next few months will be a combination of being a growth engine and a learning machine.
I believe we have the opportunity to define the landscape for how psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy is delivered. The next few months will be a combination of being a growth engine and a learning machine.
What’s your favorite outdoor dining restaurant in NYC
My good friend’s restaurant – Shoo Shoo Nolita.
