Headspace Health has acquired Shine Inc. to add greater diversity to the broader digital mental health business.
Headspace Health, based in Santa Monica, California, announced Thursday its agreement to acquire the inclusion-focused mobile mental health company. Approximately 80% of the Shine team identifies as Black, Native American, or a person of color. In addition, Shine’s self-guided content is aimed at marginalized groups, according to a report by Axios Pro.
Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
“After six years of building Shine, we are delighted to join Headspace Health in scaling up the urgent work of closing the mental health equity gap, something [co-founder Naomi Hirabayashi] and I have often felt it firsthand,” said Marah Lidey, co-founder and co-CEO of Shine, in the announcement.
Headspace Health offers wellness, meditation, coaching, therapy and psychiatric services. In October 2021, it merged with on-demand digital mental health platform Ginger.io in a deal that valued the combined company at $3 billion.
Headspace Health’s reach extends to more than 100 million people in 190 countries, and it maintains an enterprise book of business that includes 3,700 clients, according to the company. Some of these include Starbucks, Adobe, and Delta Air Lines.
Lidey and Hirabayashi founded Shine in 2016. Since then, Shine has reached 6 million people and gained more than 45,000 paying subscribers, as well as more than 90 business customers, according to the company.
Their B2B product is called Shine at Work.
Lidey and Hirabayashi will assume leadership roles on Headspace Health’s product and marketing teams, respectively, in the future.
Headspace Health Strategic Focus
In Shine’s case, Headspace Health was already working to bolster its diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEI&B) strategy across the organization, CEO Russell Glass told Behavioral Health Business in an email.
As part of that mission, the company sought to build “a diverse, global workforce that reflects the diversity of our communities,” Glass said.
Headspace Health has also been working to invest in cultural competency training for its care providers and internal team members, while reinforcing content that supports the mental health of underrepresented communities, it added.
Ultimately, the company wants to become a business capable of “fostering a place of belonging for all,” Glass explained.
“By acquiring Shine now, we can significantly advance these DEI&B efforts by bringing in an experienced and talented team that aligns perfectly with our vision, mission and values, and has been doing similar work for the past six years,” he said. the CEO. continued.
grow the business
Headspace Health, combined with Ginger’s total, has raised more than $430 million, according to Crunchbase. Headspace originally launched in 2010.
Similar to its acquisition of Shine to deepen its DEI&B strategy, Headspace Health recently delved its AI and robo-chat capabilities when it acquired San Francisco-based startup Sayana Inc. in January.
Contextually, the purchase of Shine comes at a time of operational conflict for many digital health companies.
Calm mental wellness app announced would reduce 20% of its workforce in August. Hybrid Mental Health Provider Foresight Mental Health almost bent before landing a new CEO and a secret round of funding. In June, a digital drug management and mental health company Cerebral and digital health technology company Circle both announced layoffs.
While he didn’t want to talk about finances, Glass told BHB that his company is lucky to be expanding and hiring during such a time.
“We don’t specifically comment on many of our financials, but Headspace Health is fortunate to be in a position today that allows us to continue to hire on a targeted basis across all departments, as well as pursue select mergers and acquisitions to help build and scale. specific strategic areas of our business,” he said in the email.
The reversal of fortunes for several digital health companies comes as the coronavirus pandemic inspired investors to pouring billions into spaceespecially for behavioral health companies, facilitating rapid growth inspired by tech startups.
That the funding wave has receded in the first half of 2022, presenting a kind of comeuppance for those who contempt for applying the growth-at-all-costs ethos of Silicon Valley startup culture infiltrating mental health.
