Sonar Secures $2.4M to Address Teen Mental Health Crisis at Scale
The company partners with school districts to fill crucial gaps in preventative mental health resources, measurably improving student well-being and decreasing absenteeism
SACRAMENTO, Calif., Feb. 24, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Sonar Mental Health ("Sonar"), an AI-powered mental health platform helping young people thrive, today announces $2.4M in pre-seed funding led by Nina Capital, with participation from GSR Ventures and J4 Ventures and support from the Stanford University Social Impact Founder Fellowship. Amid the worsening adolescent mental health crisis, Sonar will use this capital to accelerate its expansion across school districts nationwide, invest in R&D and app development, and continue building the most scalable, effective solution for preventative mental health support.
"Sonar isn't merely a project or a job for me; I see it as my personal mission to prevent another family or friend from experiencing the tragedy of losing a loved one to mental illness," said Drew Barvir, co-founder and CEO at Sonar. "Our team of experienced psychiatrists, counselors, researchers, and AI experts is unwavering in this shared passion for providing adolescents with the support they need to improve lifelong mental well-being while empowering under-resourced schools with proactive mental health solutions. This funding round allows us to continue making strides in supporting the next generation with the resources they need to become their healthiest, happiest, most engaged selves."
The Mental Health Support System for Youth is Broken
- Gen Z & Gen Alpha face a mental health crisis: 49.5% of adolescents in the U.S. have a mental health disorder, with 20% of adolescents experiencing a major depressive episode each year.
- School districts lack resources to solve the problem: Despite the lifelong health risks associated with youth depression, anxiety, and behavioral disorders, data shows that 17% of high schools do not have a single school counselor, and 48 out of 50 states are above the recommended student-to-school counselor ratio of 250:1 — amounting to more than 600,000 students without this critical service.
- Existing solutions don't work for adolescents: Although ChatGPT wasn't designed to counsel teens in distress, 58% of students aged 12–18 have used ChatGPT for various purposes, including mental health support. Virtual counseling platforms remain difficult to scale and fail to provide students with on-demand care.
- Schools suffer as a result: Since 2018, the percentage of K-12 chronically absent students—defined as missing 18 days per year—nearly doubled nationally, from 15% to 28%. This underscores administrators struggling to manage their student bodies' mental health and educators struggling to keep students engaged.
The Sonar Way
Sonar's preventative mental health support platform is designed to engage young people in a way that ensures they use it—and feel better because they did. The company's AI-powered Wellbeing Companion, Sonny, engages with students directly through text messages when they need support. Through ongoing conversation, the on-demand companion learns and adapts to each student's unique needs, offering tailored, judgment-free responses that make them feel seen and heard, whether they're stressing about college applications, experiencing conflict with friends, or grieving a personal loss.
The platform sets students up for long-term success beyond the K-12 experience while providing school districts with a cost-effective, scalable solution to boost student engagement and academic performance while reducing chronic absenteeism.
- Tech: Sonny is powered by AI and trained in techniques like motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral therapy. A board of psychiatrists provides clinical guidance to inform Sonny's algorithms and validate the accuracy of signs of distress flagged by Sonny.
- Human in the loop: Today, trained supporters (aka Wellbeing Companions) are involved in each conversation to ensure conversations are valuable to students and that high-risk situations are handled appropriately. Furthermore, when a potential mental health crisis is detected, Sonar's peer counselors and psychiatrists can refer students to professional therapy, highlighting the platform's holistic, human-driven approach to flagging early warning signs of anxiety, depression, and other mental health disorders.
- Partnership: School districts leverage public funding from mental health and safety-focused grants to partner with Sonar.
- Sign-up: Educators at partnered schools prompt students to sign up in the classroom, advising them to use Sonny as a resource in times of distress or when they need someone to talk to.
- Data sync: With student consent, Sonar's machine learning algorithms proactively identify potential mental health challenges based on social media data.
Momentum & Adoption
- Sonar partners with nine school districts across California, Texas, Illinois, Michigan, and Arkansas, supporting more than 4,500 students.
- Schools experience decreased rates of chronic absenteeism after adopting Sonar.
- 20-40%+ of students at Sonar district partners engage with Sonny
- More than 75% of students using Sonny demonstrate improved well-being, by more than 20% based on self-reported survey results. 80% of conversations with Sonny include new moments of self-disclosure.
- 98% of school districts partnered with Sonar expect to continue to increase mental health spending.
"Nearly every school in the U.S. is under-resourced, with the mental health support system across school districts remaining completely disjointed," said Marta-Gaia Zanchi, founder and Managing Partner at Nina Capital. "Sonar is bringing something entirely new to the market, supporting students all over the country with desperately needed mental health resources and creating learning environments where students flourish, actively participate, and lay the foundation for successful futures. We're proud to be part of Sonar's journey as the company creates a model for mental health support in schools that actually works."
To learn more about Sonar Mental Health, visit https://www.sonarmentalhealth.com/
ABOUT SONAR MENTAL HEALTH
Sonar Mental Health ("Sonar") is an AI-powered mental health platform helping young people thrive. In partnership with school districts across the nation, the company is addressing the adolescent mental health crisis to measurably improve student well-being and identify mental health challenges early. Sonar's AI-powered Wellbeing Companion, Sonny, engages with students directly through text messages whenever they need support. The platform sets students up for long-term success while providing school districts with a cost-effective, scalable solution to boost student engagement and academic performance while reducing chronic absenteeism.
Learn more at https://www.sonarmentalhealth.com/.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Tess Pawlisch
608-333-9788
sonar@needlepr.com
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SOURCE Sonar Mental Health