LifeSpeak, a North American digital education platform for employee mental health and wellness, has secured a USD42 million minority equity investment from Round13 Growth Fund, Kensington Capital Partners and Roynat Capital. LifeSpeak is raising its first institutional funding round to accelerate its global growth trajectory.
Market demand for remote, technology-based mental health and wellness solutions has grown substantially in recent years. Awareness of mental health issues from anxiety and stress to suicide risk has further accelerated with the onset of COVID-19, particularly with an increasingly remote workforce.
Since its founding in 2004, LifeSpeak has established itself as a trusted digital health provider for hundreds of North America’s leading companies across 25 industries, including financial institutions, technology, telecommunication, energy, manufacturing, as well as a large public sector presence covering governments, municipalities, hospitals and school boards.
LifeSpeak’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform of more than 2,000 video training sessions, podcasts, tip sheets and other proprietary content is unique in the market having been screened, vetted and curated from acclaimed experts spanning leading authors and heads of best-in-class institutions. Core to the product is a technology-led approach to engagement, training and communication that helps LifeSpeak achieve industry-leading utilisation metrics. The platform, offered remotely to employees and health plan members, covers topics such as preventative health, mental health (including depression, anxiety, addiction, isolation, suicide, etc), marital and relationship advice, parenting and eldercare.
“The current health crisis has highlighted the difficulty organisations face in addressing the needs of the anxious, remote workforce,” says Michael Held, Founder and CEO of LifeSpeak. “We’re excited to partner with our new investors to dramatically expand access to LifeSpeak’s platform across health plans and employers. Addressing depression, anxiety, addiction, and other health issues enhances employee well-being and strengthens corporate culture and productivity. Building resilience enables companies to support employees in the face of everyday stress, as well as equipping them to better handle an acute crisis such as the Covid-19 pandemic.”
“We warmly welcome our new institutional partners and are eager to work with them to expand the LifeSpeak platform globally and provide a much needed component of the corporate health technology ecosystem,” adds Nolan Bederman, Chairman of LifeSpeak.
“We’re thrilled to partner with LifeSpeak’s exceptional management team and co-investors to broaden the reach and awareness of this unique SaaS platform to more companies and their employees,” says Sanjiv Samant, Founder and Managing Partner of the Round13 Growth Fund. “LifeSpeak represents the first transaction for Round13’s newly established Growth Fund. We couldn’t be happier investing into such a fast growing and profitable company that is helping employees and their families access much needed support during these difficult times.”
Origin Merchant Partners acted as LifeSpeak’s financial advisor and Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP acted as LifeSpeak’s legal counsel for this transaction.
