STRESS-FREE FUNDING ROUND FOR WELLBEING TECH FIRM

Thrive – the NHS’ only approved mental health and wellbeing app for the workplace – completes £2.5m funding round in 10 days

Thrive Therapeutic Software has closed its latest round of funding in a record 10 days, raising a total of £2.5m in funding and signifying one of the fastest investments of its kind for a UK company in the digital health sector.

Thrive is the only wellbeing app for the workplace to be approved by the NHS and provides whole-person solutions for workplaces and individuals. These help them overcome periods of stress and help them care for their long-term mental health, through clinical-grade evidence-based techniques and providing in-app access to trained therapists.

As a social impact company, Thrive’s overarching aim is to help people live happier and less stressful lives; supporting them through depression, stress, anxiety, or phobias; and helping them improve their wellbeing at all levels.

This latest round of funding, which was oversubscribed at its close, attracted investment from similar socially conscious firms including Sumerian Foundation and its longstanding supporters Treebeard Trust. Investment platforms Syndicate Room and Wealth Club also contributed, with Wealth Club members investing nearly £1.5 million over eight days.

This investment will be used to research and identify further areas of help Thrive can support, as well as develop the tech platform further. This will allow more integration with existing medical data and give users seamless access to mental health care without barriers.

Dr Andres Fonseca, chief executive officer at Thrive Therapeutic Software, said:

“We’ve been blown away by the level of interest in the funding round. We quickly raised £1m from existing investors – both domestically and abroad – which was a real vote of confidence in our model – and we made up the additional £1.5m in just ten days.

“Crucially, we’ve been able to bring on board partners whose principles mirror our own, and are looking to use their investment to benefit society. Being so oversubscribed with interested parties was a really promising sign too, emphasising that the improvement of mental health provision is being taken seriously by the investment world.”

Following its launch in 2012 by consultant psychiatrist Dr Andres Fonseca and consultant clinical psychologist Dr Adam Huxley, Thrive has grown its membership reach to over 200,000 app-users. In 2020, it saw a 211 per cent increase in downloads with the company doubling its headcount to 50 employees in response. 

According to NHS England research, mental health problems in England carry an economic and social cost of £105 billion a year. Analysis commissioned by NHS England found the national cost of dedicated mental health support and services across government departments in England totals £34 billion each year.

Andres continued:

“As we’re the only corporate wellbeing app to be approved by the NHS, we’re driven by the aim of helping people overcome the personal, emotional and financial impact negative mental health can have, through the effective use of technology.

“With a quarter of us predicted to have mental health issues at some point, the problem will likely worsen given the ramifications from the pandemic year. This is an issue for the whole of society and we believe all employers now have a responsibility to provide for their staff in contributing towards their wellbeing. 

“We want the service to be as seamless for the user as possible – they never need to know who is funding their care, it will always be free to them. We will balance funding from their employers, insurers or the NHS and public sector to provide the care they need.

“Following the funding, we’re looking to invest in research and technology to optimise app usability, engagement and impact, and we’re growing our headcount, with an aim of employing more than 80 individuals by this time next year.

“We thank all of our investors for their support and we’re excited to see how this can expand and grow our offering to help many more individuals.”

Alex Davies, founder of Wealth Club, said:

“Thrive is addressing one of the most pervasive problems globally – poor mental health – escalated because of the impact of the pandemic on people’s lives. It’s also a problem that’s finally made it to the top of the agenda – of governments and employers alike. So, it’s easy to see why this investment opportunity really resonated with our investors. 

“Not only has Thrive proven it can help changing people’s lives – it has also demonstrated it can do so in a commercially viable way: it’s rare for a young company to count big names such as Aviva, AXA, Santander, DHL, Serco, Sodexo and Next amongst its clients and deliver growing revenues each year, with an impressive £1.6m recurring revenue secured already. There could be great things ahead for Thrive, making this a very exciting investment opportunity in our view.”

For more information, please visit https://thrive.uk.com/ or to download the Thrive app free, please visit: https://www.nhs.uk/apps-library/thrive/ 

ENDS

Press contact: Lizzy Bramley – [email protected] / 0796 730 8581 

Notes to editors:

Thrive

Headquartered in Stratford-upon-Avon, Thrive Therapeutic Software was founded in 2012 by consultant psychiatrist Dr Andres Fonseca and consultant clinical psychologist Dr Adam Huxley. It was launched in response to their first-hand experience of traditional support services being unable to cope with the ever growing mental health crisis in the UK.

Thrive is primarily targeted towards employers looking to support their workforce through diverse benefits programmes, as a way to ensure users are able to freely access mental health services outside of the NHS. The company serves 1.4 million end-users globally through over 100 bluechip companies – including the NHS, DHL, Santander, AXA, Aviva and Next – and has enabled an estimated 35,000 cumulative recoveries from clinical anxiety and depression.

It is the only NHS-approved wellbeing app for the workplace, and uses the latest computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) methods to help people to manage specific stressors and retrain unhelpful thoughts. Every Thrive question and feature has been validated by research and is continually developed by experts, as well as offers users in-app access to trained psychologists for direct support.

www.thrive.uk.com/

Wealth Club

The aim of Wealth Club is simple. To provide high net worth individuals and sophisticated investors with clear, impartial and well researched information on investment opportunities not typically available through mainstream stockbrokers or financial advisers. Wealth Club was set up in February 2016. It is now the largest non-advisory broker of tax efficient investments such as VCTs, EIS and Inheritance Tax Portfolios. Since launching £480 million has been invested through our platform. Wealth Club sends information on two or three deals each week to its 30,000 high net worth members.

Alex Davies, CEO and Founder of Wealth Club 

Alex was a board director at FTSE 100 stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown, where he worked for 15 years. He was responsible for building Hargreaves Lansdown into the UK’s largest direct-to consumer SIPP provider with more than 150,000 clients and over ￡12 billion under management. After leaving and selling some of his shares, Alex sought tax-efficient ways to invest his money. To his surprise, he found that good-quality services designed to help high net worth and sophisticated investors with non-standard and tax-efficient investments are thin on the ground. This led to the idea of Wealth Club – a service for high net worth and sophisticated investors. The aim is to offer them more compelling and advanced tax-efficient investment opportunities than normally available through mainstream investment platforms and financial advisers.