Addressing the mental health crisis in workplaces, Oliva launches in the UK and Europe

• Oliva provides the UK and Europe’s first comprehensive online mental healthcare solution for businesses
• Founded by experienced team with TravelPerk cofounder and Typeform and Hotjar marketing leader, with in-house Chief Clinical Officer
• Announcing $2.2m in pre-seed round funding, including notable angels and Moonfire Ventures, the new seed fund from Atomico cofounder Mattias Ljungman
• Oliva is the only workplace mental healthcare solution that provides manager support and training for much needed organisational support

London and Barcelona – 21 July 2021 – As organisations struggle with unprecedented strain on their employees’ mental health, they still lack a dedicated solution to support their people. While some companies offer insurance and wellbeing solutions to address employees’ physical health, a proper mental healthcare solution that covers the broad spectrum of both employee and manager needs hasn’t been available to businesses until now. 

Today, Oliva is launching the UK and Europe’s first comprehensive online mental healthcare solution for businesses. Oliva provides on-demand, professional-led mental healthcare for employees and managers through a zero-fuss digital platform. Created by experienced founders and clinicians, Oliva has developed its own care model based on proven, evidence-based care approaches—and recruited a team of mental health professionals—to set a new standard in workplace mental healthcare. 

Oliva is backed by Moonfire Ventures, the new seed-stage VC firm from Atomico co-founder Mattias Ljungman, which led a $2.2m pre-seed investment round, supported by tech executives from fast-growing European startups and international tech companies, including Amazon, Booking.com, DogBuddy, Typeform, Hotjar, TravelPerk, and more. 
Oliva is founded by Javier Suarez, who previously co-founded TravelPerk, one of Spain’s most successful late-stage startups, and Sançar Sahin, who previously led Marketing teams at Hotjar and Typeform. Building a high-growth startup that was bringing on 50 employees every 2-3 months, Javier experienced his own mental health issues, struggling to manage his own wellbeing while seeing the toll it had on his team.

After he left TravelPerk, Javier was shocked at how difficult it was to find quality mental healthcare. He spent over a year understanding the mental healthcare field from both a personal and workplace perspective, and realised the experience could be vastly improved. Javier and Sançar teamed up to launch Oliva , initially building a successful proof-of-concept online mental healthcare service for individuals. Along the way,  Dr. Sarah Bateup, who has spent over two decades teaching and training mental healthcare professionals, joined as Chief Clinical Officer inspired by the founders’ passion to develop a new online care experience that ensures care quality and individual progress.

Javier Suarez, cofounder and CEO of Oliva, commented:

“Employees are a company’s greatest asset – the better they feel, the better your company performs. But organisations are not set up to support their employees’ mental health in and outside of the workplace, which creates a massive problem for teammates, managers, and the organisation as a whole. We’ve launched Oliva to give employees access to comprehensive online mental healthcare and to help organisations overcome the related challenges—from attracting & retaining talent and training managers to supporting remote workers. 

Mattias Ljungman, Founder at Moonfire Ventures, added:

“Mental health has been an overlooked area of care and wellbeing, especially in the workplace. Oliva’s founders are the only team we’ve seen taking a holistic, impact-driven approach to supporting mental health. While employer-funded mental health is becoming a well established model in the US, Oliva is the first to bring a truly comprehensive approach to UK and European businesses. Oliva has already built a strong value proposition, team and product to create a new model for mental healthcare in the UK, Europe and beyond.”

From today, organisations can get Oliva’s digital platform up and running in 10 minutes, helped by a handy Slack integration, to provide their employees with mental health drop-in sessions, therapy courses, and dedicated training and support for managers. Through a secure and encrypted personal portal, employees can chat with their own care navigator who matches them with the right professional and type of care, receive 1-to-1 video therapy sessions from a curated team of diverse mental health professionals, and track their progress. 

Dr Sarah Bateup, Chief Clinical Officer at Oliva, added:

“Oliva improves the way mental healthcare is accessed, supported and paid for, while also adding more ongoing oversight and accountability to the process. Our ambition is for Oliva to be viewed as a badge of quality and set a new standard for workplace mental healthcare.”

One of Oliva’s customers, April Hoffbauer, Senior Director of People at Maze, added:

“Our team is our most valuable asset, and we recognise that a person’s mental health is critical to our collective wellbeing and overall success. With Oliva, not only can we give our team members easy access to mental health support, but we can also develop a culture that is more inclusive and work to minimize stigma with Oliva’s training and insights.”

Founded in 2019, the Oliva team is in the UK and Spain. The new funding will support recruitment, product development and international expansion across Europe.

About Oliva 

Oliva is the UK and Europe’s first comprehensive online mental healthcare solution for businesses. Oliva provides employees easy access to professional-led, personalised mental health services, tailored training and support for managers, and a curated, in-house clinical team. Oliva is founded by Javier Suarez, who previously co-founded TravelPerk and Sançar Sahin, who previously led marketing teams at fast-growth startups Hotjar and Typeform and is supported by investors including Moonfire Ventures and numerous founders and executives of Travelperk, Typeform, Hotjar and more. Visit: www.oliva.health.

About Moonfire Ventures

Moonfire is a “first money in” European seed fund focused on helping founders at the very start of their journeys to create the right foundations for exponential growth. It was founded in 2020 by Mattias Ljungman, a co-founder of Atomico, one of Europe’s top venture funds with over $2bn assets under management. He has spent 20 years investing in the best European founders. His key investments include Klarna (valued at $45bn), Supercell ($5bn exit to Softbank), Viagogo (valued over $2.25bn) and Climate Corp ($1.1bn exit to Monsanto). Moonfire focuses on investing in Health & Wellbeing, Work & Knowledge, Gaming, Community & Leisure and Capital & Finance with recent investments across Europe in Humaans, Electric Noir Studios, Skunkworks, Pento, Awell Health, Mindstone, Business Score, Homerun, HiPeople, LoveShark, WillaPay, Oliva, Equify, and more.
You can find a comprehensive update on the Moonfire portfolio, investment activity and team at: www.moonfire.com.

-ENDS-

Notes to editors

Media contact for Oliva: Katy Zack, [email protected] / 0780 990 6215
Press kit available here.
Product info:At launch, Oliva includes:

• Digital drop-in sessions: 1-to-1, instantly bookable mental health check-ins with Oliva professionals.
• Dedicated care navigator for each employee who starts therapy: a qualified person responsible for matching an employee to the right therapist + care type, and answering any questions about therapy.
• Personalised therapy courses: length and intensity decided based on the employee’s needs according to Oliva’s own care model.
• Manager training and 1-to-1 support sessions: specialised support to help managers navigate difficult conversations and foster an inclusive, stigma-free environment around mental health.
• Hassle-free digital experience: including a Slack integration for easy onboarding + session booking, and a secure personal portal for attending video sessions, writing session notes, and confidentially messaging Oliva professionals.

Mental health in the workplace info:

• UK charity Mind estimates that  1 in 6 workers experience mental health issues at any one time. 
• According to a Deloitte analysis from January 2020, the costs of poor mental health to UK employers is £45 billion. 
• Deloitte estimates that organisations that proactively invest in employee mental healthcare see an average ROI between £5-10 for every £1 invested.

COVID effects on mental health info:

• In the UK, the Office for National Statistics has noted the pandemic is creating “a rising toll on mental health, with many people not necessarily accessing medical help.” 
• Mental Health UK reports that COVID has nearly half (46%) of UK workers feeling more prone to stress than a year ago are more prone to extreme levels of stress compared with a year ago.
  • One in five feeling workers saying they felt ‘unable to manage stress and pressure in the workplace.’
  • Only 23% of people surveyed knew what plans their employers had in place to help spot signs of chronic stress and burnout in employees.