Siggy Raises $6 Million to Give Psychiatry Care Between Appointments. The Founders Who Built Nurx and Journey Clinical Are Back

NEW YORK — A new New York startup wants to fix the long silence between psychiatry appointments. Siggy, which launched on Nov. 5, has raised $6 million in pre-seed funding led by Village Global, according to Crunchbase News, which reported the round exclusively. It is the company’s first outside funding.

The founders are not newcomers to health care. Jonathan Sabbagh, Siggy’s CEO, co-founded Journey Clinical, which supports practices offering ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. Edvard Engesæth, the COO and a physician, co-founded Nurx, which provides birth control and other health services online. Crunchbase News said both previously built businesses that help patients get treatment outside a traditional doctor’s office.

The Problem Siggy Says It Is Solving

Sabbagh told Crunchbase News that therapists and the clinicians who prescribe medication often work separately. A patient may see a therapist weekly but get only a brief appointment with a prescriber every few months, leaving little time to discuss shifting symptoms or side effects.

Siggy’s answer is a service built around continuous contact. According to Crunchbase News and the company’s launch announcement, a patient starts with a free AI conversation about their history, then meets a licensed clinician by video. The clinician reviews what the AI collected and makes the diagnosis, and prescribes medication if appropriate. The company says licensed clinicians make every diagnosis, prescription and treatment decision.

The Daily “Siggy Score”

Between visits, patients can talk with the AI and check in daily on sleep, mood, medication and physical sensations. Patients who choose to can connect wearables such as Whoop, Oura or Apple Watch. The company combines those inputs into a daily “Siggy Score” out of 100 that both the patient and the clinician can see. If the score changes, the software flags it for clinician review, and patients get weekly check-ins during their first eight weeks of treatment.

Two limits are worth noting. The founders told Crunchbase News that Siggy does not prescribe controlled substances and is not a crisis service. Patients can also keep seeing their existing therapists while using it.

The Business Model and the Backers

Siggy says it accepts commercial insurance in all 50 states and is expanding into government insurance programs; patients can also pay directly, and insured patients’ costs vary by plan. Engesæth said insurance was a priority because many prospective patients cannot afford treatment out of pocket. The company says the service will be permanently free to veterans.

Village Global led the round. Crunchbase News listed Albert Wenger of Union Square Ventures, Mercury co-founder Immad Akhund and Cityblock Health co-founder Toyin Ajayi, investing through Coalition Operators, along with PsyMed Ventures, Mystic Ventures and Gokul Rajaram. Several of those investors previously backed one or both founders. Amrit Rao, a general partner at Village Global, told Crunchbase News the founders’ health care experience was a major reason for the investment, adding that “pairing that vision with an insurance-based model makes the ambition about access as much as technology.”

The founders said they began building Siggy in late 2025 and recently started accepting paying patients ahead of the public launch. Next, they plan to test the service with paying patients before expanding. The money will go toward hiring clinicians and engineers, building the software and working on regulatory requirements.

What Founders Can Take From It

Siggy is early, and there are no public outcomes data yet. But the way it is set up offers a few lessons for New York founders building in regulated fields.

Put the licensed professional in the loop, and say so. Siggy’s pitch is that AI organizes and remembers, while clinicians decide. In health care, that division of labor is both a product choice and a regulatory one.

Plan for payers from day one. Many digital health startups start with cash-pay customers. Siggy is taking insurance in all 50 states from the start, a harder path that widens who can afford the product.

Recruit investors who have backed you before. A round where several investors are returning for a second time with the same founders signals trust, and it can shorten fundraising.

Be explicit about limits. Stating plainly that the service is not for crises and does not prescribe controlled substances sets expectations for patients and clinicians.

How well the model works will depend on whether the daily score actually helps clinicians catch problems earlier and whether insurers keep paying for it. For now, Siggy is another sign that New York remains a place where experienced health care founders come back to start again.

Entrepreneurs Of New York is an independent publication and is not affiliated with Siggy.