Millions of Americans need mental health care and can’t get it. John Zhao, founder of Blossom Health, thinks he knows why – and how to fix it.
Blossom Health, a two-year-old New York startup building an AI copilot for psychiatrists, has closed a $20 million funding round led by venture firm Headline to expand across the United States.
Mathias Schilling, co-founder of Headline, is set to join Blossom’s board as part of the raise, which also drew participation from Village Global, TA Ventures, Operator Partners, and Correlation Ventures.
For Blossom Health founder John Zhao, the stakes could not be higher. “Mental health is the singular most important public health crisis in America,” Zhao said in a press release.
“Tens of millions of Americans are suffering because of an acute shortage in psychiatric care. By productizing AI to supercharge psychiatrists, Blossom is finally making psychiatry affordable and attainable for every American in need.”
How Blossom Health’s AI copilot works
It is a bold claim, but Zhao has seen enough of the healthcare industry to believe it. Mental health apps and virtual therapy platforms have come and gone, yet the gap between the number of people who need psychiatric care and those who can actually get it has barely moved.
Founded just two years ago, Blossom has positioned itself as an “AI-native” psychiatry provider. It is essentially a virtual clinic built around an “all-in-one AI copilot” that supports clinicians and automates the administrative work that typically stops mental health practices from growing.
For the psychiatrist, that means the AI copilot that can assist with diagnosis, treatment planning, and medication selection. It also provides a suite of automated tools that handle admin tasks like billing, scheduling, and insurance coordination.
For patients, the challenge is different. Because psychiatric care is often a one-off appointment followed by weeks of silence before the next, Blossom’s platform uses AI agents to check in with patients between sessions, gathering the kind of ongoing context that can help clinicians spot problems before they escalate.
Zhao described it in an interview with Fortune as being akin to a patient “texting a therapist.”
Lowering the barriers to mental health care
The startup says its model is already gaining traction. Blossom reports it is used by hundreds of clinicians treating over 10,000 patients across multiple states, and that many patients can be seen in under 48 hours, often same-day.
Blossom also accepts major commercial insurance, with an average copay of around $22, putting psychiatric care within reach for patients who might otherwise struggle to access it.
Zhao brings a mix of healthcare and scaling experience to the role of co-founder and CEO. Before Blossom, he worked at Athelas as well as EverQuote, where he was part of a team that helped grow the business through its IPO, according to Fortune.
At Blossom, he has described clinical oversight as core to product development, with a clinical director and a network of clinicians involved in piloting features before broader rollout.
It is a deliberate approach – and one he intends to carry into the next phase of growth, as Blossom expands from hundreds of clinicians and tens of thousands of patients to a national footprint.
