Member Article

East London healthtech success story raises eight-figures to fund mental health innovations

Digital health company Big Health has announced the closure of a new $12m (£9.15m) funding round as it looks to expand into mental health.

The firm, which was founded in East London in 2008, has found significant success with its Sleepio digital sleep improvement programme, along with its other ‘digital medicine’ solutions and now has a base in San Francisco.

This latest round of funding was led by Octopus Ventures, along with contributions from Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Index Ventures and the UK-based investment fund set up by the innocent drinks founders, JamJar Investments.

Commenting on the success of the tech firm’s Sleepio programme, Co-Founder Peter Hames, said that over 750,000 employees in the US now have access after their first full year in the market with clients including LinkedIn and Comcast.

He added: “This new investment allows us to push on towards our goal of helping millions back to good mental health, by growing the number of companies we work with and evolving our products to help address an ever-wider range of mental health issues.

“But we’ll only achieve this goal - and firmly establish a new “digital medicine” industry - by remaining committed to evidence-based solutions that deliver real outcomes for users.”

Big Health is something of a London healthtech success story, after Sleepio was shown in clinical trials to provide the same benefits for insomnia sufferers as in-person cognitive behavioural therapy. It is also listed by the NHS as a suggested provider for online mental health services.

Further trials with a Fortune 500 company showed a noticeable uptick in sleep and productivity of its employees who followed the firm’s programme, which includes cognitive techniques and personalised sleep schedules.

Describing the Big Health team as ‘unusually talented’, Alliott Cole of Octopus Ventures waxed lyrical about the digital health business’ innovations.

He commented: “In providing funding to Big Health, this will assist the company with its aim to help more people than ever before and also move its product further into the mental health space. We’re delighted to support the growth of the Big Health team.”