Digital Health company SilverCloud Health, the leading provider of evidence-based online mental health and behavioural healthcare solutions, announced that it has raised $8.1 million in Series A funding. Venture capital firm B Capital Group – founded by Raj Ganguly and Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin – led the investment round with significant participation from ACT Venture Capital and returning investors, Investec Ventures and AIB Seed Capital Fund managed by DBIC, NDRC and Enterprise Ireland.

SilverCloud Health is a multi-award winning global health tech company providing online therapeutic solutions to improve behavioural health and mental wellness; since launching in 2012 it has gone on to support over 80,000 patients across it’s global customer base, delivering clinical results that are on par with face-to-face therapy.

SilverCloud Health chief executive and co-founder Ken Cahill said the company is defining a new healthcare model to meet the demand of the rapidly growing behavioural healthcare market, which in the US alone is estimated to be worth $440 billion. “This new investment enables us to drive forward with our commitment to evolve our health platform and address the ever-increasing global need in behavioural healthcare. We believe that technology is the enabler to address the biggest healthcare challenge of this century, maximising clinical delivery while enhancing patient access and choice, through the ability to engage with therapy at a time that fits into diverse lifestyles and through devices that are a part of our everyday lives.”

“We chose B Capital to lead our Series A because of their healthcare knowledge and relationships, and due to their partnership with the Boston Consulting Group, which has opened doors for us to new commercial partners in the US,” he added.

“SilverCloud Health’s mission is to make people healthier by providing effective, accessible and affordable behavioural healthcare opportunities, filling a massive void in the market today. B Capital Group is excited to back Ken and the team at SilverCloud Health, as they continue to change the way behavioural healthcare is delivered,” said Eduardo Saverin, Co-founder and Partner, B Capital Group. “Our investment in SilverCloud Health is driven by our confidence in its team, its proven track record working with global health organisations and its esteemed partner network. This new capital will enable SilverCloud Health to continue to innovate, expand and broadly deploy its programmes to the millions of individuals who need them.”

This funding round comes as SilverCloud Health is growing rapidly with an expanding research pipeline that continues to show the clinical effectiveness of the company’s behavioural health platform. The SilverCloud Health platform is currently used by over 120 healthcare organisations across Europe and North America. Within the UK National Health Service (NHS), the company has seen an exponential growth of clients—from supporting 1 percent of NHS mental health services two years ago to over 45 percent today. More broadly within the UK SilverCloud Health works with other organisations including universities and employers. The new capital will be used to meet growing demand in Europe and North America, build out it’s commercial, development and clinical teams and drive its strong clinical research and publishing agenda.

Speaking at the announcement Minister for Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation Mary Mitchell O’Connor TD said, “Today’s announcement that SilverCloud Health, an Irish company providing outcomes-focused online behavioural health solutions has secured significant investment is very welcome. It is testament to the vision and hard work of everyone in SilverCloud that the company has grown from a small start-up into a highly innovative scaling company and with this investment has the potential and the ambition to continue to successfully scale its operations into a global company. The Government through Enterprise Ireland looks forward to continued engagement with SilverCloud Health to support their business development. I wish Ken and his team every success with their future.”

Ireland continues to rapidly grow as a leading global health tech hub. Kevin Sherry, Executive Director Global Business Development for Enterprise Ireland said “SilverCloud Health is a world-class health tech company with global ambition and we are delighted to see the continued growth and impact SilverCloud Health is having in international healthcare markets. SilverCloud is a good example of how Irish companies are supplying the global healthcare market with leading innovative, effective, scalable products and services.  We look forward to working with the company to achieve further growth and success as it enters new markets.”

With proven results in major health systems globally, this investment will allow expansion into new areas such as integration with personal health and activity monitoring devices to give a more integrated personalised context across physical and behaviuoral healthcare.

Gavin Teo, Partner at B Capital Group said, “SilverCloud Health is redefining access to quality, outcomes-based care for hard-to-treat and high cost behavioural health populations. Their digital health platform is enabling new ways for provider systems and pharma companies to personalise therapeutic delivery to the individual patient, which is a building block for clinically validated, value driven care. B Capital is thrilled to be the lead investor in SilverCloud Health at such an exciting time in their growth.”

‘’We’ve seen SilverClouds impact on patients and clinicians. Patients have seen it transform their daily lives , with a therapy they can control, and clinicians have been able to rapidly integrate it into clinical pathways.’’ Says John O’Sullivan, General Partner at ACT Venture Capital. ‘’ The efficacy data is compelling and is evident across a very large and diverse range of cases. We are delighted to be working with the SilverCloud team to positively impact and change many more lives and transform the economics of healthcare delivery’’

Today SilverCloud Health offers 22 evidence-based programmes addressing conditions such as depression, anxiety and stress as well as for long-term chronic conditions (diabetes, COPD, and cardiovascular disease). SilverCloud Health has spun out from the NDRC in 2012 and has been built on over a decade of academic and clinical research. Clinically led full randomised control trials (RCT) have demonstrated that SilverCloud Health’s programmes are extremely effective, engaging with patients and provide positive clinical outcomes that are on par with face-to-face therapy.

In 2016, SilverCloud Health was highlighted in Accenture’s Digital Health Tech Vision 2016 report. The report listed 5 key innovative companies taking charge of healthcare delivery including Apple, Uber, United Healthcare, Philips and SilverCloud Health. In November 2016, SilverCloud Health was listed in the Top 100 Global Disruptive Companies in Healthcare, a report compiled by The Journal of mHealth which provides insight into the key sector trends that are emerging from across the healthcare continuum when it comes to the adoption of technology-led products and services.

In the UK, clinical and financial benefits of online mental health services are being increasingly recognised, with Prime Minister, Theresa May, announcing £67.7 million funding for its expansion earlier this month.