Sonar

What Sonar does

Sonar (legal entity: Get Sonar, Inc.) is a U.S. healthcare technology company founded in 2022 that operates a text-based mental wellbeing platform for youth. The company partners with K-12 school districts, health systems, behavioral health organizations, and parents/educators to deliver 24/7 coaching and care navigation, with stated reach of 20,000+ young people supported across 9 districts in 5 states. Sonar is headquartered in Sacramento, California (operating address) with the entity incorporated under California law, and runs a lean team of 1-10 employees. The company is privately held and venture-backed, having closed a $2.4 million seed round in February 2025 led by Nina Capital with participation from GSR Ventures, J4 Ventures, and Stanford University.

Sonar's platform centers on a human-in-the-loop model that pairs trained Wellbeing Coaches with an AI companion called "Sonny." The AI applies natural language processing, anomaly detection, recommendation, and process automation to surface context, flag risk signals, personalize engagement, and generate documentation, while every conversation is led by a human coach. The product suite includes Sonar for Students (the core youth-facing coaching experience), Sonar for Schools (district deployment with crisis escalation, care coordination, and measurement-based reporting), Sonar for Parents & Educators (an AI-powered consumer coaching product for adults), the Sonar Coach App (the coach console), and the Sonar Changemaker youth ambassador program. The platform holds SOC 2 Type II certification and is HIPAA, FERPA, COPPA, and SOPPA compliant, and was rated Low/Minimal Risk by Common Sense Media.

Sonar operates a dual go-to-market. Enterprise field sales target K-12 districts and health systems with quote-based annual subscription contracts and lightweight in-person implementation typically live within 1-2 weeks. A separate direct-to-consumer self-serve product at coach.sonarmentalhealth.com serves parents and educators on monthly subscriptions. Pricing is not publicly disclosed on either side. Distribution is supported by content marketing (Substack), organic social (Instagram, LinkedIn), earned media (NYT, CNN, WSJ), and the in-school Changemaker program. The company is advised by Stanford and UPenn researchers and positions itself around proactive early identification of youth mental health challenges, citing that 75% of mental illnesses begin before age 24 and that over 130 million U.S. residents live in Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas.

Name

Sonar

Legal name

Get Sonar, Inc.

Website

https://www.sonarmentalhealth.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2022

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Sonar is a U.S. youth mental health platform that pairs AI tools with trained human Wellbeing Coaches to deliver 24/7 text-based coaching, crisis escalation, and care coordination for K-12 school districts, health systems, and parents.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Youth Digital Mental Health & Wellbeing Coaching

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710), Educational Support Services (61171)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200)

akta.pro primary industry

Autism Spectrum (ASD) Academic & Social-Communication Support Tutoring (EDANAFAD)

akta.pro secondary industries

Autism Parent/Caregiver Education & Training (School-Linked) (EDAKAKAJ), Autism Classroom & School Program Support (Inclusion/Resource) (EDAKAKAC)

Keywords

• Youth mental health platform
• Text-based wellbeing coaching
• School mental health services
• AI-assisted care navigation
• Behavioral health coaching

Headquarters

HQ city

Mill Valley

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. School District Subscriptions: Sonar partners with school districts to provide 24/7 wellbeing support for students. Schools pay for access to the platform which provides text-based coaching, crisis support, and care coordination at a fraction of the cost of hiring additional staff.
2. Parent/Educator Coaching Product: Separate consumer-facing product for parents and educators providing AI-powered coaching support for navigating youth mental health challenges.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Sonar provides a 24/7 text-based wellbeing coaching and care navigation platform for youth, combining trained human Wellbeing Coaches with AI augmentation. The company sells enterprise subscriptions to K-12 school districts and health systems, and operates a separate direct-to-consumer coaching product for parents and educators, with the platform designed to fill gaps between clinical visits and after-hours.

Product overview

Sonar is a mental health platform for youth offering 24/7 text-based wellbeing support. The core product is Sonar for Students, a coaching platform where trained Wellbeing Coaches lead AI-assisted text conversations through the companion 'Sonny.' The platform extends to Sonar for Schools (district partnership offering), Sonar for Parents & Educators (AI-powered parent coaching assistant), and a Sonar Coach App for the Wellbeing Coach team. The architecture combines human-led conversations with AI that surfaces context, flags risk, and automates documentation. The company also runs a Changemaker Program for youth advocacy and product co-design.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Sonar for Students Core 24/7 text-based wellbeing coaching platform for youth that combines trained human Wellbeing Coaches with AI assistance. Students chat with 'Sonny' (a team of coaches) to receive empathetic, evidence-based support for stress, relationships, mental health, and more, with AI surfacing context, flagging risk, and generating documentation.
• Sonar for Schools Enterprise solution for K-12 school districts that delivers 24/7 mental health support to students, including real-time coaching, crisis escalation, care coordination, and measurement-based reporting. Sold as an annual subscription with quote-based pricing and in-person implementation that goes live within 1-2 weeks.
• Sonar for Parents & Educators Direct-to-consumer AI-powered coaching assistant that provides evidence-based guidance to parents and educators on supporting youth mental health. Delivered as a monthly subscription via coach.sonarmentalhealth.com, distinct from the school district enterprise offering.
• Sonar Coach App Internal-facing application used by Sonar's trained Wellbeing Coaches to lead text-based conversations with students. Coaches are supervised by licensed clinical staff and use the app to handle escalation, care coordination, and documentation.

Quantifiable outcome

• 80% of students see improved wellbeing
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers9 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability5 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core research partner and advisory partner.

• Stanford Universitycore research partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerSonar's founders partnered with Stanford researchers who have shown how technology could be used for early identification of mental health challenges. Stanford provides research support, advisory expertise from faculty including Nina Paul and Johannes Eichstaedt, and investment backing.
• University of Pennsylvaniaadvisory partnerStrategic or Co-development PartnerAdvisory team members from UPenn provide research expertise in psychology, education, and technology ethics.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Calm Health: Calm Health extends the consumer Calm meditation app into employer, payer, and provider mental health programs. It competes for adjacent budget rather than direct district contracts, but overlaps with Sonar's parent/educator consumer coaching product and broader wellbeing category.
• Spring Health: Spring Health is a global mental health benefits provider offering therapy, coaching, and crisis support to employers and health plans. It competes for the same health-system and EAP dollars and represents a broader incumbent with significantly more capital and clinical capacity.
• Lyra Health: Lyra Health is a large mental health benefits platform serving employers and health plans, with youth and family services as part of a broader portfolio. It is a broad incumbent competing for health-system and EAP budget that Sonar also targets through its health systems and EAP pathway.
• Headspace Health: Headspace (merged with Ginger) provides consumer and enterprise mental health, including Headspace for Schools serving K-12 districts. It is a broad incumbent in the youth mental health space with a much larger product surface area than Sonar.

Direct peers

• Mantra Health: Mantra Health is a digital mental health provider purpose-built for colleges and, increasingly, K-12 districts, with teletherapy and psychiatry. It is a direct peer in the youth mental health institutional sales motion, with a more clinician-led delivery model than Sonar.
• Daybreak Health: Daybreak Health offers online mental health support specifically for teens and school districts through a virtual therapy model. It competes directly with Sonar for the same K-12 buyer and youth end-user, focusing on licensed therapist matching rather than AI-coaching.
• Cartwheel Care: Cartwheel Care provides school-based virtual therapy and mental health services for K-12 students, contracting with districts and pediatricians. It directly overlaps with Sonar's student-facing, district-purchased offering, though Cartwheel emphasizes therapy over coaching.
• Wysa: Wysa is an AI-driven mental health chatbot marketed to employers, health plans, and youth audiences. It is a direct competitor in the AI-coaching category, explicitly compared by Common Sense Media when rating Sonar's teen safety profile.
• Hazel Health: Hazel Health provides K-12 school-based teletherapy and mental health services, partnering directly with school districts. It is the closest direct competitor to Sonar's school district motion, with a heavier emphasis on licensed clinicians rather than AI-augmented coaches.

Emerging players

• Joon Care: Joon Care is a youth-focused teletherapy platform serving teens and young adults with licensed therapists. It is an emerging player in the same youth mental health category, with a smaller footprint and narrower product than Sonar but a similar end-user focus.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/sonar-mental-health
• Instagraminstagram.com/sonarmentalhealth

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles16 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors5 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Sonar