Koa Health – previously known as Alpha Health, a digital mental healthcare platform, closed a $16.5 million Series A funding round that will bring the company’s total up to $35 million to date.
Investors include Ancora Finance Group and Wellington Partners.
Koa Health offers app-based digital platforms created for the employer, provider, and insurer customers. Chief among these is Foundations, Koa Foundations, a mental wellbeing app helping organizations better support their teams. According to the company, the app is used by more than 250,000 users through deployments among “dozens” of enterprises to improve wellbeing, including tackling stress, sleeping better, aiding relaxation and positive thinking, and boosting the self-confidence of their employees.
The company’s other apps include Mindset (offered through providers as a way to facilitate private chat-based mental health support), Perspectives (a cognitive behavioral therapy coaching app for conditions such as OCD and body dysmorphic disorder), and Foresight (an artificial intelligence powered-app that predicts higher-risk patients and help providers prioritize their care).
According to the World Health Organization, nearly 1 billion people worldwide live with a mental disorder, which has called for substantial investment to avert a global mental health crisis accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Oliver Harrison, CEO of Koa Health, said: “It is increasingly clear that digital technology has the potential to help close the growing demand gap in mental healthcare. However, the field has been limited by the inherent challenges of providing an integrated, evidence-based, ethical, and personal solution that fits service users and customers’ needs. Because of Telefónica’s support, we have been able to deliver this solution.”
Oliver Harrison said: With this investment, Koa Health will expand internationally, invest more in clinical trials, and continue to develop personalized products which meet the mental health needs of every individual. Our goal is to provide easy access to a range of digital mental health solutions which help people flourish in a challenging and changing world.”
According to Mercom funding data, digital mental healthcare startups have raised almost $1 billion in the past five years. Recently, MindLabs, a London-based digital mental health app, raised $1.8 million in a pre-seed investment round.
