Allswell, a new mental health provider focused on LGBTQ+ patients, has raised $1.3 million in pre-seed funding.
The round was led by Amboy Street Ventures, with participation from Seae Ventures’ Unseen Capital, Techstars and others. Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group is a limited partner in the Techstars fund.
The funding will support the startup’s expansion into more states, deepen its digital and clinical offerings and grow its therapist network.
“We really just saw a lack of options in particular for LGBTQ adults,” co-founder and CEO Dawn Androphy told Fierce Healthcare in an exclusive advanced interview. “What we noticed is that a lot of mental health programs aren’t really thinking about LGBTQ, if they’re targeting adults.”
Allswell offers virtual, evidence-based therapy for LGBTQ+ individuals, and currently operates in Maryland. It offers one-on-one and group therapy sessions, primarily led by social workers and rooted in affirmative cognitive behavioral therapy. Allswell also offers cognitive processing therapy and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) for trauma. The startup, founded in 2024, plans to expand to the entire DMV region in early 2026.
Why group therapy? “LGBTQ folks are much more likely to express that they are feeling lonely than the general population,” Androphy explained. “Being in a group with shared identities and shared experiences can be especially powerful for this group.”
Many Allswell patients struggle with PTSD and trauma. That’s in line with documented trends: LGBTQ+ people experience much higher rates of trauma, PTSD and stressors like discrimination compared to the general population. While estimates indicate up to 8% PTSD prevalence among the general population, up to 48% of LGBTQ+ individuals meet the diagnostic criteria for PTSD.
Allswell currently offers trauma therapy in one-on-one settings, with plans to roll out group trauma therapy in the future. Patients with higher-acuity needs can be referred to external provider partners.
Digital tools help engage Allswell patients between sessions: journaling, for those with trauma, and worksheets for anyone to practice skills learned during therapy. Allswell plans to build these into more engaging, AI-enabled apps with the help of the latest capital.
The company’s commitment to evidence-based care is particularly important for this population, Androphy said. Many existing therapeutic models use a “family of origin” framework to understand the environment one grew up in.
“For LGBTQ adults, what their family looks like is defined a lot differently,” Androphy said.
Many therapy models also don’t take into account the concept of minority stress for this marginalized population, she added, which requires adapting therapy to address the role of stigma in these patients’ lives. This could include political and cultural factors that contribute to poor mental health.
“In standard [cognitive behavioral therapy], there’s a lot of focus on yourself and avoiding the world around you, but that just doesn’t work for marginalized groups,” Androphy said.
Some clinical programming out there may be driven by a focus on revenue or pleasing patients, even if treatment is not effective. According to Mike Parent, clinical advisor to Allswell, some patients like to blame others for their problems and want their therapist to support them in that.
“There’s a subset of therapists willing to supply that for a fee,” Parent said. Parent is also principal researcher at Hopelab, an organization focused on advancing youth-informed research on mental health and health inequities.
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While master’s and doctorate programs are required to follow certain guidelines around their curricula, the quality of the programs can vary, per Parent. Not everyone ends up trained deeply in evidence-based practices—ones that are backed by randomized controlled trials.
“The degree to which places implement evidence based can vary a bit,” Parent said.
Not every school program will also address how to practice affirmatively. Credentialed therapists, even with evidence-based treatment training, may not have a good grasp of the barriers LGBTQ+ people face. Understanding that a person can’t change the discrimination they experience is one crucial example.
“There’s a fine line where we work in affirming treatment to acknowledge those [factors], and then acknowledge what we can actually change,” Parent said.
Allswell screens therapists for experience in working with diverse LGBTQ+ populations and requires them to complete additional training modules designed by OutCare Health, a nonprofit offering LGBTQ+ healthcare resources. Some Allswell therapists also train with Parent.
The virtual aspect of Allswell is important for this community, per Androphy: queer people are more likely than the general population to have had a telehealth visit in the past two years, KFF data shows. This could be in part because of a lack of affirming local options, per Androphy.
Queer people also gravitate to online spaces for community. "There's so much comfort in our community looking for community online,” Androphy said.
Androphy has over a decade of LGBTQ+ advocacy experience, including through volunteering with Lambert House, a Seattle-based nonprofit supporting queer youth. As they navigated mental health on Medicaid, Androphy recalled, they often spoke about feeling isolated and a lack of community.
“They were just completely unable to access care that was designed for them even in a liberal oasis of sorts, in Seattle,” Androphy said. “I saw this lack of access.”
Given most Allswell patients are on Medicaid, the company is in-network with Maryland Medicaid, as well as UnitedHealthcare, CareFirst and Cigna. It also accepts cash pay. It is already seeing positive outcomes, per Androphy—over four to eight weeks, 83% of patients see a reduction in depression symptoms. Allswell therapists practice measurement-based care, tracking anxiety, depression, loneliness and more.
Androphy was inspired to co-found Allswell during her time at Stanford Business School. In a past interview, Androphy noted how a Stanford course on entrepreneurship for societal health opened her eyes to the potential for the private sector to address social challenges.
While at Stanford, Androphy conducted hundreds of interviews with healthcare consumers and learned about the unique challenges LGBTQ+ people face when engaging with providers, from a lack of empathy to outright bigotry.
In 2024, Androphy was one of several Stanford Business students awarded the Stanford Impact Founder fellowship. The program provides funding and advising support to fellows who want to start a high-impact company or nonprofit addressing a pressing social need.
“This is a community that's really understudied,” Androphy said. “That's only going to get worse with overall federal cuts in funding, but also cuts in funding for studies for this community.”
When Androphy talks to other founders and investors about what she’s trying to build, the response she gets is, “‘That’s a really nice idea and that’s a great community to start with. Who do you plan to build for next?’”
Over 30 million American adults identify as LGBTQ+, which some experts suggest is likely an undercount.
“There’s a huge challenge where people really underestimate the size and need of this community,” Androphy said. “They think it’s a small problem, but the scale of this problem and the need is huge.”