PsycApps to develop mental health platform with £1.5 million Seed investment 

Owners of award-winning anxiety and ‘emotional fitness’ app eQuoo have just secured a £1.5M Seed investment led by US-based Morningside Ventures. 

PsycApps, based in London, leads the way in emotional and mental health apps, and focuses on AI as a method of coaching. 

Their emotional fitness game eQuoo is the only tool covered by Ofsted, with clinical trials proving a positive impact on students’ resilience, anxiety, and depression. 

Investment into mental health platform 

The large investment will give  PsycApps the chance to grow its team and accelerate the development of its mental health platform, which they say will address the “roughly 50 per cent of teens and tweens who self-report struggling with one or more mental health issues.”

The funding news follows a recent report from Frontiers in Psychiatry that describes low engagement and attrition from digital mental health applications as the field’s Achilles heel. 

PsycApp’s platform offers an accessible, scalable, and sticky mental health intervention that gives higher education institutions the ability to impact students’ mental health positively.

Changing lives of students

PsycApps was co-founded by Clinical Psychologist Silja Litvin, who used to work in an NHS priory. She said that her clients would often reach her “way too late” – often after six months on a waitlist and years after experiencing the first symptoms.

She added: “I wanted to find a way to give them the skill set they needed before they needed it. 

“If a student drops out of their course due to mental health issues, it will change their lives in a way that hurts them and society. 

“With eQuoo we give young adults a tool that helps them grow mentally, stay mentally healthy and get help if they’re experiencing issues.”

Speaking on the investment, Stephen Bruso, Digital Health and BioTech Partner at Morningside Ventures, commented, “Digital health interventions will be critical in how our society addresses the second, ongoing pandemic of mental health issues. 

“However, designing these interventions to maximize long-term engagement and outcomes will be critical to making a difference. 

“Silja and her team have shown robust engagement and outcomes data in large clinical studies, and we are proud to partner with them to bring eQuoo to people in need everywhere.” 

Silja added, ‘We are excited to work with the Morningside team, who have a great track record. 

“From our first meeting, it became clear that they share our passion for addressing this global mental health issue and, especially, the negative impact it is having on the results of those still in school. 

“Morningside’s focus on health, tech, and social responsibility investing fits PsycApps perfectly.’