Behavioral health care is starting to take a new form, and it might even fit in our pocket.
AbleTo, Inc., a technology-enabled behavioral health care company, announced its purchase of Joyable for an undisclosed sum. Joyable operates an app-based digital therapy platform that provides patients and users with mental health support and guidance.
Behavioral health and digital health have overlapped in recent years, and this deal is just more evidence that behavioral health care is changing.
AbleTo aims to strengthen its virtual behavioral health care with a digital platform that delivers clinically-based therapies. AbleTo provides treatment virtually through a network of more than 600 therapists and coaches, and Joyable’s platform offers users expert-designed digital engagement with a coach. The approach has been proven to drive 10 times the engagement of other digital therapies with outcomes that match face-to-face therapy.
It’s similar to Livongo Health’s acquisition of myStrength, Inc. in late January. MyStrength partners with more than 100 of the largest healthcare payers and providers in the country to extend behavioral health services and expand chronic care support to patients through an intuitive digital platform and application.
The deal enables Livongo’s Applied Health Signals platform to address a wider range of behavioral health issues such as depression and anxiety. The deal marked Livongo’s first step into the behavioral health care market. No financial terms were disclosed.
This type of acquisition is going on outside the United States, too. Cure.fit, an Indian app developer backed by investors such as Accel, IDG Ventures and Kalaari Capital, bought Seraniti in November 2018.
Cure.fit develops and operates apps and an online platform focused on diet, exercise, mental health and healthcare, while Seraniti is a psychotherapeutic online platform that uses a combination of Eastern and Western psychotherapeutic and proprietary techniques. It has served more than 8,000 customers and currently hosts more than 500 sessions per month. No financial terms were disclosed in that deal either.
