Mental health issues like stress, depression and anxiety can lead to work-related illnesses, absences and long-term sick leave. But many companies think offering a gym membership is enough. ifeel — a European startup that decided mental health should be tackled differently and which raised $6.6 million in 2021 — has now raised a $20 million Series B investment co-led by FinTLV Ventures and Korelya Capital. In total, ifeel has raised $40 million since its inception.
Initially founded in 2017 as a consumer-focused therapy platform, ifeel pivoted to allow businesses to offer staff support during the pandemic and segued into being offered as part of an employer’s or insurance provider’s healthcare cover. It competes with companies like Modern Health.
“When you enter into our platform, the first part is a digital assessment that is a co-pilot of an AI system that we built,” CEO Amir Kaplan told me. “So we actually can evaluate the risk of the person when they come into the platform and predict what is the best level of care.”
“After this assessment, we will give a recommendation of the best treatment that starts from mild up to high-risk cases and our goal is to identify the high risk cases to prevent them from having a dramatic impact on the person and then on the company. But we also prevent cases that are starting and companies are able to help them in a scalable way.”
Poor mental health is an enormous business and societal issue, costing England alone £300 billion a year, according to research by the U.K.-based Centre for Mental Health think tank.
Gil Arazi, founder and managing partner of FinTLV Ventures, said in a statement: “This investment … supports our thesis that the insurance industry should prioritize prevention and preventative solutions.”
