Dublin-based Spectrum.Life has raised an additional €5 million for its mental health and wellbeing platform. The startup is aiming to support employees and students through their mental health journey with a holistic approach.
In the age of hustle culture and concerning levels of burnout, finally, we are talking about how to take better care of staff and place mental health and wellbeing as a priority at work.
While awareness is rising, the provision of mental health care is lacking, struggling to keep up with demand, and often relying on a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. Irish startup Spectrum.Life takes a different look at things, it’s one of the biggest providers of employer health and wellbeing services in the UK and Irland, and, has just secured new investment to grow.
Funding details
- €5 million was raised in new investment, bringing the company’s total funding to €9 million
- The round was led by Act Venture Capital
- It also included participation from existing and new investors
Stephen Costello, CEO of Spectrum.Life: “We are thrilled to have the support of ACT and our other investors as we continue to grow and expand our innovative mental health, wellbeing and digital health offerings. Our goal is to make mental health and wellbeing support accessible to everyone, and this funding will allow us to bring our game-changing solutions to even more individuals and organisations.”
Launched in 2019, Spectrum.Life aims to support people through the entire spectrum of their mental health journey. The startup takes a holistic end-to-end approach to support people in advance of, through, and beyond crisis enabling them to thrive in work and outside of it.
Traditional channels of mental health support are increasingly overburdened and waiting lists continue to grow. For someone in crisis, there’s no time to wait. Traditional employee assistance plans do play an important role in helping bring people back from struggling, but thereafter the support is limited and personalization is limited.
Further, the one-size-fits-all approach can alienate workers who would otherwise welcome help and it is a common occurrence that employees who do make the necessary phone calls may be dismissed by the phone centre agent if their issue is too complex for EAP’s standard six or eight sessions of therapy. Spectrum.Life is aiming to change this culture of a cookie-cutter approach to mental health.
The platform currently provides holistic support including mental health and wellbeing coaches, open-ended therapy, a digital clinic, employee benefits advisory and financial advice.
The Irish startup has been growing at an accelerated pace and is one of the fastest-growing workplace wellbeing providers in the UK and Ireland. Currently, the platform is supporting over 4 million users across 2500 clients. It reports that in 2022, employers saw a 43% overall increase in productivity, a 94% reduction in those reporting as severely distressed after treatment and on average, only 5% of users needed to be referred to long-term supports after 6-8 sessions of counselling.
This latest investment will be used to further develop and scale the Spectrum.Life platform, including the expansion of its team and the addition of new features and resources.
Debbie Rennick; General Partner Act Venture Capital: “We are delighted to lead another round of funding into Spectrum Life. We have strong conviction in this market opportunity and in the Spectrum Life team and platform. The Company’s strong growth and success to date is only the beginning of a great future. We believe that their platform has the potential to make a significant impact on the mental health and wellbeing of individuals around the world, and we are proud to support their further growth with this investment.’’