Digital mental health start-up Spectrum.Life raises €17m

Spectrum.Life has followed its recent rebrand with a €17 million ($18.5 million) financing that will be used to expand the reach and scale of its mental health and wellbeing support business.

The Irish company – previously known as Spectrum Wellness – is focused on providing a digital clinical care platform that insurers, employers, and academic organisations can offer to their members, employees, and students and is predicting revenues will hit €25 million this year.

Its technology platform gives access to on-demand health and wellbeing specialists, counselling in over 35 languages, as well as mental health coaching and 24/7 support.

First set up in 2018, the company has seen dramatic growth and now provides its services to more than 7 million people in Ireland and the UK, through insurers like Bupa, as well as thousands of companies and dozens of universities. More than half of its revenues now come from the UK.

Spectrum.Life benefitted from a surge in mental health issues and a boom in digital approaches to manage them during the COVID-19 pandemic, but has shown remarkable resilience since the end of the pandemic, in part because mental health services in the UK have struggled to keep pace with soaring referral levels, with convoluted access pathways, long waiting lists, and poor long-term outcomes.

The new financing – led by Act Venture Capital, with participation from existing investors – is being earmarked for continued expansion into new international markets and a hiring drive that aims to swell its headcount by 100 in the next 18 months from a current level of around 260 employees.

“This milestone not only marks a significant achievement for Spectrum.Life, but also signals the wider market’s shift towards embracing integrated healthtech solutions that deliver digital health transformation,” said Stuart McGoldrick, the company’s executive chairman and co-founder.

“We are building our company in a sustainable way and continued profitability is a core focus,” he added. “Our pipeline is exceptionally strong, and we are on course to reach €100 million in revenue by 2028.”

Spectrum.Life's co-founder and chief executive, Stephen Costello, said when the rebranding was formally announced last week that the company had extended the range of services on offer to include virtual primary care, child and adolescent mental health supports, online neurodiversity assessments, and new digital mental health offerings.

“Technology is reshaping care, making it accessible and patient-centred. Our rebrand embraces this shift to holistic digital health, seamlessly integrating technology into daily wellbeing,” he added.

Mental health problems are estimated to cost the UK economy at least £118 billion a year, according to research by the London School of Economics and Political Science.