Big Health's Digital Therapeutics Land on a Payer Formulary

For a patient with chronic insomnia, the standard of care often begins with a prescription. A digital therapeutic like Sleepio, Big Health's flagship program, aims to offer a different first step, one grounded in decades of cognitive behavioral therapy research. The company's bet is that payers and employers, facing soaring mental health costs, will increasingly cover these evidence-based, non-drug treatments as a reimbursable medical benefit. After 14 years, more than $149 million in funding, and a recent CEO change, that bet is entering a new phase of commercial validation [Big Health, June 2020] [STAT, February 2026].

A clinical foundation, built for scale

The company's origin is a classic story of patient-led innovation. Co-founder Peter Hames struggled to find effective, non-pharmacological treatment for his own insomnia. He partnered with Oxford sleep scientist Professor Colin Espie, whose research formed the clinical backbone of Sleepio, a digitally delivered CBT program [Index Ventures, Unknown]. From the start, the model was B2B2C, targeting institutional buyers who could provide access to large populations. By 2016, Sleepio had been deployed to more than 750,000 employees at organizations like Comcast and Boston Medical Center [Index Ventures, July 2016]. The company later expanded into anxiety with Daylight, applying a similar, automated CBT framework.

What distinguishes Big Health from wellness apps is its focus on generating the clinical and economic outcomes data required for reimbursement. Peer-reviewed studies, including one in the Journal of Health Economics and Outcomes Research, have shown that Sleepio users can see significantly lower healthcare costs compared to controls, a key metric for value-based care contracts [Journal of Health Economics and Outcomes Research, Unknown]. This evidence has helped its products get placed on formulary lists, like the Evernorth Digital Health Formulary, treating them more like prescribed medicines than optional wellness perks [Big Health, September 2022].

The funding and leadership runway

Big Health has assembled a notable cap table, with investors ranging from healthcare specialists like Gilde Healthcare and Kaiser Permanente Ventures to growth-stage funds like SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The company's funding history shows a steady escalation in ambition and scale.

2016 Series A | 12 | M USD
2020 Series B | 39 | M USD
2022 Series C | 75 | M USD
2026 Strategic | 23.7 | M USD

A $75 million Series C in late 2025, led by SoftBank, was followed months later by a $23.7 million strategic round co-led by.406 Ventures and AlleyCorp, with participation from CVS Health Ventures [Fierce Healthcare, November 2025] [STAT, February 2026]. This capital appears earmarked for commercialization and an expanded portfolio, following the 2024 acquisition of prescription digital therapeutic company Limbix, which added a program for adolescent depression to Big Health's platform [MobiHealthNews, August 2024].

The company has also undergone a leadership transition. After co-founder Peter Hames and later acting CEO Arun Gupta, Yael Berman took the CEO role in 2024 [STAT, February 2026]. The team now numbers over 150 employees, with more than 70% working remotely, reflecting a shift towards a distributed commercial and clinical operation [TipRanks, 2026] [Big Health, Unknown].

The payer adoption motion

The core of Big Health's current strategy is navigating the complex pathway to becoming a covered benefit. The company is not selling direct-to-consumer subscriptions; it is convincing employers, health plans, and health systems to embed its products into their healthcare offerings. Success looks like CVS Health making Sleepio available to additional health plans through its platform, or a major insurer creating a dedicated billing code for digital CBT [Fierce Healthcare, Unknown].

STAT reported in February 2026 that the company is seeing momentum with payers and health-system customers specifically around Medicare billing codes for digital mental-health treatments [STAT, February 2026]. This is the regulatory and reimbursement frontier where digital therapeutics prove their worth as medical devices, not just helpful apps. The company claims its products have reached ten million people globally through such partnerships, a figure that underscores the scalability of the model once a payer signs on [Big Health, August 2022].

Navigating a crowded and cautious market

For all its traction, Big Health's path is not without friction. The digital mental health space is crowded, and the company must clearly differentiate its clinically validated, prescription-style products from the broader universe of mindfulness and meditation apps. Furthermore, the reliance on institutional sales cycles means growth is tied to the budgeting and procurement timelines of large healthcare organizations, which can be slow. The company's most credible risks and its answers to them can be framed in a few key areas.

• Reimbursement complexity. Securing consistent coverage across diverse payers and plan designs is a perennial challenge. Big Health's answer is a focus on health economic data, like the study showing SleepioRx users had a 42% greater reduction in costs compared to controls, to justify the ROI for payers [Journal of Health Economics and Outcomes Research, Unknown].
• Competitive differentiation. Competitors range from prescription digital therapeutic pioneers like the now-defunct Pear Therapeutics to scaled wellness platforms like Calm and Headspace Health. Big Health's wedge is its narrow, deep focus on CBT for specific conditions, its B2B2C distribution, and its growing body of peer-reviewed outcomes research.
• Execution under new leadership. With a relatively new CEO and an expanding product portfolio post-Limbix, integrating and commercializing new offerings will test the company's operational focus. The recent strategic funding from healthcare-focused VCs suggests confidence in this expanded roadmap [STAT, February 2026].

What standard of care looks like today

The patient population here is vast: adults struggling with chronic insomnia and anxiety, conditions often treated first-line with pharmaceutical options. For them, the current standard of care frequently involves a primary care visit, a discussion of symptoms, and potentially a prescription for sleep or anxiety medication. Access to a trained CBT therapist, the gold-standard psychological intervention, can be limited by cost, availability, and long waitlists. Big Health's programs are designed to sit in that gap, offering a scalable, evidence-based intervention that can be accessed anytime. The next twelve months will be telling. Watch for announcements of new health plan partnerships, particularly in the Medicare Advantage space, and for clinical data publications from the Limbix acquisition. The milestone that matters most is not just user growth, but the number of lives covered under a reimbursed benefit code, turning a digital tool into a bona fide medical treatment.

Sources

1. [Big Health, June 2020] Big Health Raises $39 Million in Series B Financing | https://www.bighealth.com/news/big-health-raises-39-million-in-series-b-financing
2. [STAT, February 2026] Big Health fundraise, investors bet dtx promise | https://www.statnews.com/2026/02/12/big-health-fundraise-investors-bet-dtx-promise/
3. [Index Ventures, Unknown] Big Health Raises $12M To Bring Evidence-Based Digital Medicine To Millions | https://www.indexventures.com/perspectives/big-health-raises-12m-to-bring-evidence-based-digital-medicine-to-millions/
4. [Index Ventures, July 2016] Big Health Raises $12M To Bring Evidence-Based Digital Medicine To Millions | https://www.indexventures.com/perspectives/big-health-raises-12m-to-bring-evidence-based-digital-medicine-to-millions/
5. [Journal of Health Economics and Outcomes Research, Unknown] SleepioRx users demonstrated $2083 greater cost reduction (42%) compared with controls
6. [Big Health, September 2022] Daylight for anxiety and Sleepio for insomnia have been added to the Evernorth Digital Health Formulary | https://www.bighealth.com/news/daylight-for-anxiety-and-sleepio-for-insomnia-have-been-added-to-the-evernorth-digital-health-formulary
7. [Fierce Healthcare, November 2025] Big Health hauls in $75M | https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/digital-health/big-health-hauls-75m-to-ramp-up-its-digital-mental-health-therapeutics-business
8. [MobiHealthNews, August 2024] Big Health acquires prescription PDTx company Limbix | https://www.mobihealthnews.com/tag/big-health
9. [TipRanks, 2026] Big Health had 155 employees as of June 1, 2026
10. [Big Health, Unknown] Over 70% of employees are remote
11. [Fierce Healthcare, Unknown] Big Health's Sleepio service will be made available to additional health plans through CVS Health's new platform
12. [Big Health, August 2022] Evolving our leadership at Big Health | https://www.bighealth.com/news/evolving-our-leadership-at-big-health