My Online Therapy, the UK’s first virtual psychology clinic, has secured £4.2 million in funding from the Lighthouse Investment Group.
According to the UK charity Mind, one in four people in the UK will struggle with their mental health in any given year, which can only put increasing pressure on the demand for therapy. However, for many, visiting a therapist in person can be challenging (due to life commitments, time constraints or feelings of embarrassment) which is why there is a need to embrace technology and offer online therapy.
My Online Therapy provides people with access to therapies by connecting them with leading psychologists via video or web chat. After completing a free online assessment, the platform matches the user to the most appropriate therapeutic approach and the best psychologist for their situation. The user can choose to follow this recommendation or from any of the psychologist profiles on the platform.
Next, the user will select the way they want to connect with the psychologist and receive therapy. They have three options: by video, live chat or daily messaging. The latter is a weekly subscription service, which allows users to send unlimited messages to their psychologist whenever and as often as users like.
All psychologists who work for My Online Therapy have been hand-picked, ensuring that clients have access to the very best HCPC (Health & Care Professions Council) registered psychologists.
The London-based startup, which was founded in 2018 by siblings Dr Elena Touroni and Vasileios Touronis, as well as Dr Tom Pennybacker and Elettra Bianchi Dennerlein, will use the funds to support its next phase of rapid growth. This will involve enhancing its customer operations, expanding its product and engineering teams to build in-app self-help therapy tools and psychological well-being skills, and expanding its B2C and B2B marketing.
Elettra Bianchi Dennerlein, co-CEO and co-founder of My Online Therapy said: “With psychological issues impacting so many people’s lives, My Online Therapy was established to provide easier access to mental health services. This €4.9 million in funding will accelerate our mission to provide convenient, reasonably priced, high quality care at the click of a button to those in the UK and beyond.”
