Miami-based Yung Sidekick, an AI-powered mental health platform, raised $825K in pre-seed funding to advance its capabilities in automating administrative tasks for therapists.
The funding round was led by Altair Capital and Ultra.VC, with additional contributions from VCs and angels.
Yung Sidekick aims to address the administrative burden faced by mental health professionals, particularly notetaking and managing electronic health records (EHR). According to the American Psychological Association, 45% of psychologists report burnout, with administrative tasks contributing significantly to their workload. The startup’s platform seeks to alleviate this by generating EHR-ready progress notes in just two minutes, streamlining workflows and enabling therapists to dedicate more time to patient care.
“Our goal is to empower mental health professionals by cutting down on paperwork, allowing them to spend more time with their patients,” said co-founder Stanley Efrem. The platform captures session audio, automatically generates a transcript, and uses AI to extract key details, including symptoms, medications, and treatment goals. In addition, it provides detailed session reports that offer insights for both therapists and patients, helping track therapeutic progress and identify patterns over time.
The startup is also rolling out an AI assistant feature, designed to support therapists with instant access to session-specific details and client history. It can flag indicators for conditions like depression or anxiety and recommend further assessments when necessary. Yung Sidekick is fully HIPAA-compliant, ensuring that all generated reports are anonymized and audio recordings are deleted after processing.
Founded in 2022 by Michael Reider (ex-Uber), Alexander Anastasin (ex-Groupon), and psychotherapist Stanley Efrem, Yung Sidekick has already processed over 30,000 therapy sessions and serves more than 100 clients. The startup’s mission is to reduce therapist burnout and enhance patient care by minimizing administrative overhead. “We’re also working towards a provider-patient platform that integrates patient-focused features, such as AI-driven client chat, to enhance the therapy experience for everyone involved,” said Michael Reider, CEO and Co-Founder of Yung Sidekick.
