Siggy has raised $6 million in pre-seed funding to build a mental health service that uses AI to collect patients’ histories and track progress between appointments with licensed clinicians, the startup told Crunchbase News exclusively.
The company brings together two founders who previously built businesses that help patients get treatment outside a traditional doctor’s office. Jonathan Sabbagh co-founded Journey Clinical, which supports practices offering ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, and Edvard Engesæth co-founded Nurx, which provides birth control and other healthcare services online.
Village Global led the financing for New York-based Siggy. Notably, several investors in the round previously backed one or both founders. They include Albert Wenger of Union Square Ventures, Mercury co-founder Immad Akhund, and Cityblock Health co-founder Toyin Ajayi, through Coalition Operators. Other participants include PsyMed Ventures, Mystic Ventures and Gokul Rajaram.
The founders said they began building Siggy in late 2025. The round, which they plan to use to hire more clinicians and engineers, develop the software and work on regulatory requirements,
is the first outside funding for the company. The startup recently began accepting paying patients ahead of its public launch, and the founders said they next plan to test the service with paying patients before expanding further.
Between appointments
Sabbagh, Siggy’s CEO, told Crunchbase News in an interview that the company is addressing a problem he encountered in mental healthcare. Therapists and the clinicians prescribing their patients’ medication often work separately. Patients may see a therapist weekly but have only a brief appointment every few months with their prescriber. This leaves little time or opportunity to discuss changes in symptoms or medication side effects.
To address that problem, Siggy uses AI conversations and daily check-ins to gather information clinicians can review between visits.
“AI helps maintain the conversation and organize what patients share, so clinicians have a richer picture of the person that they’re treating,” said Engesæth, the startup’s COO, in an interview.
Patients begin by answering questions about their history through a free AI conversation. They then meet a licensed clinician by video, who reviews that information. The clinician then makes a diagnosis and prescribes medication if appropriate.
Patients can opt to connect wearables such as Whoop, Oura or Apple Watch, adding sleep, activity, heart rate and heart rate variability data to the daily check-ins that underpin the Siggy Score. The company aims to use those patterns to flag difficult stretches earlier, including when patients report feeling fine despite worsening sleep or other physical changes.
If the score changes, the software flags it for a clinician to review. Patients also receive weekly check-ins during their first eight weeks of treatment, according to the company.
Clinicians decide whether to continue treatment or adjust medication, and also handle all medical questions. When appropriate, they can help patients taper off gradually. Siggy does not prescribe controlled substances and is not a crisis service, the founders said.
One important note: Patients can continue seeing their existing therapists while using Siggy, Sabbagh said. A planned feature would let patients share information with other providers and involve loved ones in their care.
A prior working relationship
As with many startup founders, Sabbagh’s interest in mental health treatment grew out of his own experience. After two decades in finance, he experienced burnout and was eventually diagnosed with PTSD related to childhood trauma. He said ketamine-assisted therapy helped him recover, leading him to return to school to study psychology at 38.
He subsequently co-founded Journey Clinical. Sabbagh said he has since become its executive chairman, remaining involved while taking on the CEO role at Siggy.
Engesæth, a physician by training, was an early investor in Journey and advised Sabbagh as he built the company.
Before that, Engesæth co-founded Nurx, which initially helped patients obtain birth control prescriptions and receive medication at home. He said the company grew to more than 2 million patients and an annual revenue run rate exceeding $100 million before merging with Thirty Madison in 2022.
The two had considered starting a company together for years. With Siggy, they say they want to make the regular contact and coordination Sabbagh had with his own providers available to more patients.
Accepting insurance
Siggy accepts commercial insurance in all 50 states and is expanding into government insurance programs. Patients can also pay directly; insured patients’ costs vary by plan.
Insurance was a priority because many prospective patients cannot afford treatment out of pocket, Engesæth said. The founders also say Siggy’s service will be permanently free to veterans.
Investor POV
Amrit Rao, a general partner at Village Global, told Crunchbase News via email that the founders’ experience building healthcare companies was a major reason he invested.
The fact that Siggy accepts insurance was important too. “Pairing that vision with an insurance-based model makes the ambition about access as much as technology,” he said.
Mercury co-founder and CEO Immad Akhund, who invested personally, is a repeat backer of both founders. He pointed to their longer-term ambition of using AI to understand each patient’s brain health well enough to detect changes early.
“That’s why I’m backing them again with Siggy,” he added, “and why I’m excited to be in early on what they build next.”
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Illustration: Dom Guzman
