YUNG Sidekick
Yung Sidekick, a US-based mental health startup, has announced it has raised 825,000 USD in pre-seed funding to advance its AI-powered platform that automates administrative tasks, such as note-taking, for mental health professionals.
The round was led by Altair Capital and Ultra.VC, with participation from other VCs and angel investors. The funding will enable Yung Sidekick to accelerate its product development and roll out new features that will streamline supervision, assessment, and client interaction.
The American Psychological Association reports a high demand for mental health care services alongside a significant shortage of providers. Its survey found that 45% of psychologists reported feeling burned out due to the increased workload.
This situation is further strained by administrative overload, with mental health professionals spending an average of 20% of their work hours on admin tasks, such as managing electronic health records (EHR).
Yung Sidekick aims to ease the administrative burden and prevent therapist burnout by automating documentation processes and streamlining therapist workflows. The platform captures session audio and automatically generates a transcript, which AI uses to extract key topics, symptoms, medications, goals, and more. In two minutes, it produces EHR-ready progress notes that can be copied or integrated into a therapist’s clinical software.
The platform also creates detailed session reports for both therapists and patients, offering insights into patterns, resilience strategies, and therapeutic relationships. For clients with multiple sessions, it compiles ‘meta’ reports, providing a view of the patient’s history and psychological profile.
Yung Sidekick is launching an AI assistant that therapists can consult regarding a particular client. For example, it can quote the client's exact words from a session or remind the therapist of specific details about their biography or treatment plan. The platform can also flag weekly diagnosis markers of depression, anxiety, and life satisfaction, and signal when further assessments may be needed.
Yung Sidekick says it is fully HIPAA-compliant and does not store personal health information or client details. Every report and note generated through the platform is anonymised, and all audio recordings are immediately deleted after processing.
For therapists who prefer not to record sessions, the platform offers a ‘dictate recap’ feature, allowing them to verbally summarise sessions in their own words.
Founded in 2022 by Michael Reider (ex-Uber), Alexander Anastasin (ex-Groupon), both entrepreneurs with over 10 years of experience in digital technologies, and Stanley Efrem, a psychotherapist and mental health counselor, Yung Sidekick has processed over 30 000 therapy sessions and currently serves over 100 clients.
"Every minute spent on paperwork is a minute taken away from patient care. Our mission is to empower mental health professionals to dedicate more time to meaningful client interactions by reducing administrative overload. By streamlining documentation, we enable therapists to focus on what truly matters — improving lives," said Stanley Efrem, Co-Founder of Yung Sidekick.
“While our current focus is on helping therapists, our long-term vision is to evolve Yung Sidekick into a provider-patient platform. We plan to introduce more patient-focused features, such as AI-driven client chat, to create a more holistic and effective therapy experience for both sides of the therapeutic process,” said Michael Reider, CEO and Co-Founder of Yung Sidekick.
