MoneyStack raises $1M to add financial counseling to addiction treatment
What's the deal? MoneyStackDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has raised $1 million in seed funding led by Cistern CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → to embed financial counselors inside behavioral healthcare programs, starting with gambling addiction. The round drew participation from the American Heart AssociationDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →'s Social Impact Funds, O'Shaughnessy VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Sidecut VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Gaingels, and angel investors. It brings the company's total funding to nearly $2 million.
What's the endgame? MoneyStack places dedicated financial counselors into treatment programs to help patients and families stabilize the debt, tax issues, and financial crises that can derail recovery. The new capital will fund technology built for financial counseling within behavioral healthcare, including a product called GamFinDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → for gambling addiction.
Why now? Gambling is rising sharply as legalization and mobile betting spread. In gambling disorder, money is central: financial struggles were cited in 73% of conversations with the National Problem Gambling Helpline in 2025, the top reported reason for calls.
Why it matters: An estimated 2.5 million US adults have a severe gambling problem, with 5 to 8 million more facing mild or moderate problems. People with gambling disorder died by suicide at about five times the rate of the general population, according to a 2024 study.
"Clinical teams treat the disorder. Nobody addresses the debt, the tax issues, and a broken relationship with money — the factors that pull people back to gambling and sports betting," said Alex De Marco, founder and chief executive officer of MoneyStack.
What could go wrong? At $1 million, this is a modest raise that sits well below typical seed rounds. Building purpose-built technology and scaling counselor networks across treatment programs will test whether that capital stretches far enough.
The signal: Investors are increasingly treating financial distress as a health issue rather than a separate problem. With the American Heart Association backing the round, MoneyStack reflects a push to move "upstream" — addressing money as a driver of both mental and physical health outcomes.
Read more: morningstar.com
Image credit: MoneyStack
