Frontera launches with $32M in seed funding
Frontera Health, an AI-enabled autism care company, announced its launch with $32 million in seed funding.
The funding round was co-led by Lux Capital and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with Bison Ventures, Menlo Ventures and Inspired Capital participating.
WHAT IT DOES
The company’s AI-powered tools help clinicians diagnose and treat children with autism and comparable disorders.
Frontera’s proprietary AI solutions empower diagnosticians and board certified behavior analysts (BCBAs) so they can deal with administrative barriers that could limit access to care.
The aim is to have clinicians see more children, lower monotonous tasks and paperwork, and clear the way for faster turnaround time to diagnoses and care.
Frontera’s AI solutions “analyze, infer and reason with unstructured data in voice, text and inputs from other formats.”
The company’s assessment builder allows BCBAs to complete customized assessment reports in two to three hours.
Frontera is expected to open its first innovation center shortly, an ABA clinic that provides diagnostic and therapeutic services.
The company will use the funds to scale its AI-enabled autism care platform.
“As a parent of a son with autism, I saw firsthand how challenging the system is for clinicians,” Amol Deshpande, CEO and cofounder of Frontera, said in a statement.
“Faster diagnoses and accelerated care leads directly to better outcomes later in life. We’re proud to work with BCBAs to empower them to bring quality care to more communities, especially rural and underserved communities that have historically been overlooked.”
MARKET SNAPSHOT
Other companies offering digital health tools for neurodiverse individuals include Cortica, which in 2023 closed a $40 million strategic Series D extension. The funding brought its total Series D raise to $115 million.
Cortica offers virtual and in-person medical diagnosis services, plus behavioral and developmental therapies, for children with autism, developmental delays, ADHD and other neurodiverse conditions.
The company used the funds to scale its reach nationally and invest in clinical decision support, data capture, research and technology.
Last year, Forta closed a $55 million Series A funding round led by Insight Partners. Alumni Ventures and Exor Ventures also participated in the round, as well as the founders of Forward, Flexport, Curative, 23&Me, Prelude Fertility, Warby Parker, Harry’s and Allbirds.
Forta combines AI and large language models (LLMs) with a 50-hour training course for parents to provide their child with personalized ABA therapy for autism.
In 2023, SpectrumAi raised up to $20 million in a Series A funding round led by CVS Health Ventures with participation from Cobalt Ventures. Prior investors Frist Cressey, F-Prime and Autism Impact Fund also participated in the raise.
The company offers tools to help analyze quality and outcomes data on applied ABA, a therapy aimed to improve communication, social and learning skills for those with conditions like autism.
Virtual reality (VR) behavioral therapy platform Floreo closed a $10 million Series A funding round in 2022, led by Tenfore Holdings with participation from Autism Impact Fund, Disability Opportunity Fund and Felton Group.
The funding came in the wake of a Category III Current Procedural Terminology Code (CPT) from the American Medical Association for the use of VR technology to assist with therapy. CPT III codes are temporary codes used to report emerging technologies, procedures and services.
The CPT III code (0770T) went into effect in January 2023, allowing qualified healthcare professionals to report their use of VR as part of therapy as a practice expense.
