Senior-focused behavioral health startup nearing launch
LONDON: A seniors focused behavioural health start-up by a market veteran is nearing its launch date.
Starbucks Corp. (Nasdaq: SBUX) vet Kris Engskov has revealed his latest venture — a senior-focused, home-based behavioral health company, dubbed Rippl.
The Seattle-based startup emerged from stealth Wednesday with $32 million in seed funding. The round was led by ARCH Venture Partners and General Catalyst.
This news comes after Engskov hinted on Twitter Tuesday that his stealth-mode company was ready to make its public debut this week.
Over the last several days, Engskov and other executives with the company have been posting facts about gaps in senior-focused behavioral health care.
Cumulatively, the images include the following text: “Nearly 20% of Americans who commit suicide are seniors. We have more seniors than at any time in US history. Yet, only 3% of psychiatric clinicians specialize in seniors. ERs can’t be the way that we treat mental health. This is the challenge of a generation. And we’re taking it (head) on.”
BHB first reported on Engskov’s venture in March. At that point, Engkov had communicated on social media that his company focuses on “democratizing next-gen mental & behavioral healthcare and support for older adults and their families” to help them live at home longer and with better health.
He also said that Rippl was “urgently building a new approach to caring for older adults with cognitive challenges.”
The federal government assigned the startup a publicly accessible unique identification number called a National Provider Identifier (NPI). The NPI is associated with the King County, Washington-based corporation FHCC Inc. and is identified as a community/behavioral health provider organization.
Other details have materialized online about the company’s leadership team.
Engskov began a career working in the Clinton administration. He left the White House in June 2000 to join Seattle-based telecoms and software investment firm Madrona Venture Group.
From 2003 to 2019, Engskov worked as an executive at Starbucks, leaving the company from the role of executive vice president of global business operations to become the president of Bellevue, Washington-based senior living company Aegis Living.
BHB sister publication Senior Housing News reported that he left Aegis Living to create an unnamed home health venture funded by ARCH Venture Partners, a venture capital firm that backs “disruptive science.”
He co-founded Rippl with Inca Dieterich, who has been an associate at ARCH Venture Partners since 2020. She is also vice president and partner of strategy and innovation.
These are the other members of the leadership team that can be identified on social media: Jim Terry, vice president of finance and form Starbucks vice president; Karrie Austin Escobedo, vice president of clinical operations and former DispatchHealth regional operations direction; Jesse Schlueter, chief people officer and former Nordstrom human resources vice president; Ainsley Gourlay, director of culture and learning and a former public education professional.
