January 2017: SilverCloud Health

Ken Cahill, chief executive and co-founder, SilverCloud Health

SilverCloud Health, a global health tech company providing online therapeutic solutions to improve behavioural health and mental wellness, recently announced a round of VC funding worth USD$8.1m.

Venture capital firm B Capital Group, founded by Raj Ganguly and Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, led the investment round with significant participation from ACT Venture Capital and returning investors, Investec Ventures and AIB Seed Capital Fund managed by DBIC, NDRC and Enterprise Ireland.

SilverCloud started as a seven year research project at Trinity College Dublin, before becoming a three-year translational research project undertaken jointly by the National Digital Research Centre, Trinity College Dublin and Parents Plus, Mater University Hospital in Ireland.

Since launching in 2012 it has gone on to support over 80,000 patients across its global customer base, delivering clinical results that are on par with face-to-face therapy. The patient/client is referred by their healthcare provider (for example Aware, or the NHS) and the programmes offer interactive, secure content that includes activities, tools, videos and reflective exercises.

The health liaison can monitor activity on the account and keep track of how it is working for the patient.

In November 2016, SilverCloud – whose platform is currently used by over 120 healthcare organisations across Europe and North America – picked up the Health and Life Sciences gong at the eir Elevation Awards at The Marker Hotel.

BEHAVIOURAL HEALTHCARE

Commenting on the latest round of funding, SilverCloud Health chief executive and co-founder Ken Cahill said: “This new investment enables us to drive forward with our commitment to evolve our health platform and address the ever-increasing global need in behavioural healthcare.”

Speaking to Business & Finance, Cahill said: “To get the type and class of investors that we have on board … really is a great testament to what we’re doing.”

Eduardo Saverin, co-founder and partner, B Capital Group, commented: “Our investment in SilverCloud Health is driven by our confidence in its team, its proven track record working with global health organisations and its esteemed partner network. This new capital will enable SilverCloud Health to continue to innovate, expand and broadly deploy its programmes to the millions of individuals who need them.”

This funding round comes as SilverCloud Health is growing rapidly with an expanding research pipeline that continues to show the clinical effectiveness of the company’s behavioural health platform.

Cahill noted, “Since we spun out of research in 2012, the delivery has really ramped up, particularly over the last 12 months. We have delivered to 80,000 patients/clients since 2012. But 50,000 of them have been in the last 12 months so it’s been a very rapid growth over the last year. The investment is really focused on allowing us to scale the achievments.”

This new investment enables us to drive forward with our commitment to evolve our health platform and address the ever-increasing global need in behavioural healthcare

Continuing to validate their clinical research is a key focus, as Cahill points out that moving into new territories requires local studies: “Often US domestic organisations would be more interested in seeing domestic trial data than they would be interested in seeing trial data from Europe.”

Sharing their growth projections with us, he told Business & Finance they are on track to do €5 million in revenue this year, with that growing to €20 million next year on foot of the investment. “It really gives us the arsenal, the tools, the man power to be able to achieve those kind of levels of figures and numbers,” he added.

With a number of exciting announcements due in Q1, the goals for this year are big, but achievable, based on their trajectory so far. “We are extremely mission driven,” said Cahill, “Yes, 80,000 is the number now, we have a number within the next four years of effectively hitting and delivering the platform to 1 million live, and that really is a big goal.”