Swedish digital therapy firm Mindler buys UK rival
Charlotte Housden, ieso’s UK managing director and Erica Larson, Group CEO at Mindler.
Two players in the digital mental health space – Sweden's Mindler and ieso Digital Health UK – are joining forces through a takeover deal.
Mindler has taken ownership of the UK company, which has been providing digitally delivered talking therapies to the NHS for more than a decade and has agreements in place with healthcare trusts that have provided support to more than 145,000 patients to date.
The marriage brings together Mindler's digital therapy (DTx) platform – which connects users with licensed psychologists for video-based sessions and DTx programmes and has served 1.8 million people in the UK and Nordic markets since launch – with ieso Digital Health's 'telecare' based cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) and AI-powered clinical toolkit.
Parent company ieso is not included in the transaction and will continue to develop its mental health-focused clinical AI platform independently. Meanwhile, the new acquisition comes after Mindler previously took control of Finnish outcome analysis firm Medified and The Sandox, a UK startup specialising in digital mental health services for children and young people.
"ieso's work in the UK has set a gold standard for scalable, evidence-based digital therapy," commented Erica Larson, group chief executive at Mindler, alluding to the UK firm's strong penetration in the market with contracts that include one third of the integrated care systems (ICSs) in England as well as a national contract in Scotland.
"We are thrilled to bring their expertise, clinical insight, and NHS relationships into the Mindler group," she added. "Together, we will offer the most comprehensive digital mental health platform in the UK – one that supports patients throughout their care journey."
The expanded offering is designed to allow greater flexibility in how care is delivered, along with deeper clinical capabilities and more actionable data insights.
Part of the strong performance by both companies in the UK is the rising demand for mental health services, which is outpacing supply, with around 3.8 million people in contact with the NHS for these services between 2023 and 2024, a rise of almost 40% on pre-pandemic levels.
Compounding that is an 11% shortfall in staffing of doctors in mental health services, which has contributed to long wait times for care, according to Mindler. It cited one study which found that NHS patients are eight times more likely to wait over 18 months for mental health treatment than physical health treatment.
ieso Digital Health UK's managing director, Dr Charlotte Housden, will retain that role as the company integrates with Mindler.
