Butterfly Learnings, the pediatric development and behavioural health platform, has raised USD 1.5 million in seed round funding from 9Unicorns, Venture Catalysts, Insitor Partners, Fondation Botnar and UTIL Stiftung and CIIE.CO. The funds would be used to build and scale the digital product and expand the company’s physical presence across India.

Butterfly Learnings’ co-founder and CEO, Dr Sonam Kothari, said there is a huge unmet need in India for behavioural health for children in the 2-8-year age bracket. Butterfly Learnings aims to apply an evidence-based approach to deliver better outcomes to children and their families.

Founded in 2021 by Dr Kothari and Dr Abhishek Sen, Butterfly Learnings uses techniques such as Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA), Occupational Therapy and Speech Therapy via an integrated in-person and digital platform to solve developmental issues and behavioural health challenges in children.

It is to be noted that pediatric behavioural healthcare is not accessible in India, with approximately three million children suffering from an autistic spectrum disorder in the country. The majority of these children are never diagnosed and treated. Butterfly Learnings was founded to mainly address this huge issue.

Butterfly Learnings has four physical centres in Thane and Mumbai and is seeking to scale its services across the country. The company aspires to deliver improved clinical outcomes to over 2,000 children and families in 2022.