Sharecare, a provider of personalized digital health services through its platform, acquired MindSciences, a digital therapeutics provider that helps people reverse unhealthy habits.
Founded in 2014, MindSciences has raised $2.1 million from Evolve Ventures, an early-stage venture firm, and David Gold, founder and CEO of Dapix. The company creates app-based programs that address habit change through evidence-based mindfulness techniques. It helps individuals who have problems such as dysfunctional eating, anxiety, bad habits, and addictions, with step-by-step guidance and supports to help make lasting change.
The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Sharecare says the acquisition further builds on its digital health and wellness offerings to its existing customers. The company already provides digital therapeutics, behavioral health services, original relaxation and wellness videos created to reduce stress and anxiety, promote healthy sleep patterns, and support meditative practices.
“We are deeply committed to helping our client partners deliver best-in-class digital therapeutics to those in their populations that need them most, which is why we partnered with MindSciences in the first place. And as levels of worry and unhealthy behavior skyrocketed across the country in April, behavioral health and remote patient monitoring have become increasingly critical, particularly as employers across the country prepare to return to work,” said Jeff Arnold, founder, chairman, and CEO of Sharecare. “In the wake of COVID-19 in particular, our acquisition of MindSciences is a major step forward in optimizing the Sharecare platform to help our partners navigate the next phase of the pandemic while empowering their people to overcome habits they may have developed to cope, reclaim their well-being and build resilience for the future.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has escalated the mental well-being crisis in the United States, with 9 in 10 reporting that they are impacted by feelings of worry about the novel coronavirus and 1 in 5 reporting severe levels of stress and anxiety, according to Sharecare’s Flatten the Curve survey.
“The widespread and persistent worry Americans are experiencing right now is unlike anything I have seen in my 20-plus years of studying, researching and practicing mindfulness – and we must empower people to use the single most powerful tool available to help them weather this storm: their own mind,” said Dr. Brewer, who joins Sharecare as its senior scientific and medical advisor for behavioral health. “Sharecare’s reach, engagement, and depth is unparalleled, and I am incredibly hopeful about the positive change we can effect by putting the combined power of our platforms into people’s hands.”
Sharecare has raised over $400 million since its founding in 2010 and has acquired eight digital health companies, according to Mercom data. Early this year, Sharecare acquired Visualize Health, a population health management company, for an undisclosed amount.
Image Credit: MindSciences
