As a child, Yury Yakubchyk was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and his case was so severe he had difficulty attending school every day.
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But the resilience of his physician parents and access to a network of medical professionals and therapies set him up for success–despite the naysayers, he told Crunchbase News.
“I don’t know where I would be,” Yakubchyk added. “Autism is the 800-pound gorilla in the room, and it needs to be addressed in childhood to avoid further medical costs down the line. However, an overwhelming majority of families don’t have the access to the kind of care that I did.”
That led Yakubchyk to start San Francisco-based Sprout in late 2019. Sprout is a tech-enabled platform for autism care that matches children with therapists who create customized treatment plans that can be administered both in-home and online.
On Tuesday, the startup raised a $10 million seed round led by General Catalyst, Felicis Ventures and Bling Capital.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2020 that one in 54 children are diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Further, this diagnosis could be made in children as young as two years old. Sprout focuses on early intervention of autism, working with children aged two to four, offering a free assessment to properly diagnose children in a matter of days or weeks.
“Autism care takes an average of 18 months to go through all of the steps of getting care, but we can do that in five weeks,” Yakubchyk said. “One of the toughest steps is getting an official diagnosis. Once you get it, it is kind of like getting a V.I.P. card to receive treatment.”
Families are matched with therapists who create personalized and digitized at-home treatment plans that include Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy, speech and language therapy, and occupational therapy. A designated care coordinator works with families from assessment to treatment.
The seed financing will help Yakubchyk reach his goal of signing 200 U.S. families onto the platform by the end of the year. Sprout already has more than 100 therapists working with the program. The fresh capital will also help onboard a waitlist of others who want to join, he said.
“We are going to start thinking about Series A around that time, when we have the key metrics to show our in-home concierge offering is working and effective,” he added.
Featured photo: courtesy of Sprout
Blogroll illustration: Li-Anne Dias
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