Image credits: PsycApps
London-based PsycApps, a developer of evidence-based mental health games for teens and young adults, announced on Thursday that it has raised £1.5M (approximately €1.7M) in a seed round of funding from US-based Morningside Ventures.
The UK company says the capital will enable it to grow its team and accelerate the development of its mental health platform to address teens struggling with one or more mental health issues.
PsycApps: What you need to know
Founded by Silja Litvin and Vanessa Hirsch-Angus, PsycApps is on a mission to improve the mental well-being of young people.
The platform offers a mental health intervention that gives higher education institutions the ability to positively impact students’ mental health. The company does this through a mental health game called eQuoo.
Silja Litvin, PsycApps co-founder and CEO says, “After working in an NHS priory, I realised that my clients were reaching me way too late – often after six months on a waitlist and years after experiencing the first symptoms. I wanted to find a way to give them the skill set they needed before they needed it. If a student drops out of their course due to mental health issues, it will change their lives in a way that hurts them and society. With eQuoo, we give young adults a tool that helps them grow mentally, stay mentally healthy and get help if they’re experiencing issues.”
According to PsycApps, eQuoo helps boost young people’s emotional health and helps them build base-level resilience.
Ofsted, the UK’s education regulator and school and college assessor, has suggested that schools and colleges include resilience and personal growth programmes within their curriculum.
Cambridge Regional College and Paragon Skills are two of eQuoo’s early adopter clients, covering nearly 20,000 students and apprentices.
Michelle Dowse, Deputy Principal at Cambridge Regional College, says, “Educational establishments across the UK have seen considerable growth in students requiring support with their mental health, partly due to the pandemic. While we at Cambridge Regional College are providing a range of services to support these students, we recognise that PyscApps can help us to support students before they need that intervention and those in need of immediate support. We are using the eQuoo app to build the resilience of our students and are pleased to be collaborating on this project”.
The company claims that 500,000 teenagers and young adults have played its digital evidence-based mental health game.
Investor
Morningside is a technology and life science venture investment firm. The firm invests globally and has offices in Boston, Shanghai, and London.
The firm partners with academic founders and entrepreneurs to build companies that want to improve the current state of medicine today.
Stephen Bruso, Digital Health and BioTech Partner at Morningside Ventures, says, “Digital health interventions will be critical in how our society addresses the second, ongoing pandemic of mental health issues. However, designing these interventions to maximise long-term engagement and outcomes will be critical to making a difference. Silja and her team have shown robust engagement and outcomes data in large clinical studies, and we are proud to partner with them to bring eQuoo to people in need everywhere.”
Silja Litvin says, ‘We are excited to work with the Morningside team, who have a great track record. From our first meeting, it became clear that they share our passion for addressing this global mental health issue and, especially, the negative impact it is having on the results of those still in school. Morningside’s focus on health, tech, and social responsibility investing fits PsycApps perfectly.’
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