Irish company SilverCloud Health snapped up by Amwell

28 Jul 2021

Image: © NIKCOA/Stock.adobe.com

The digital mental health platform is one of two companies that has been acquired by US telehealth company Amwell.

SilverCloud Health, an Irish-founded mental health platform, has been purchased along with another healthcare platform by US telehealth company Amwell.

Terms of each deal were not disclosed, but Amwell said the purchase price for the two companies was around $320m.

SilverCloud was founded in 2012 and its mental health programmes have been used by more than 750,000 users. It has partnerships around 300 organisations, including the HSE and the majority of the NHS mental health services in the UK.

SilverCloud has more than 30 online mental health programmes, covering from wellness and resilience to severe mental health and chronic concerns. These are backed by more than 17 years of research, including partnerships with academic institutions.

Last year, the company raised $16m in Series B funding in a round led by MemorialCare Innovation Fund, with investment from LRVHealth, OSF Ventures and UnityPoint Health Ventures.

‘Our work has only just begun’
– KEN CAHILL

US company Amwell aims to connect healthcare providers, insurers, patients and innovators to deliver greater access to affordable and quality care.

According to the company, it powers telehealth solutions for more than 2,000 hospitals and 55 health plan partners with more than 36,000 employers.

Amwell will leverage SilverCloud’s platform and clinical research to enhance its own behavioural health offerings as well as to develop new digital specialty care programmes.

Ken Cahill, CEO of SilverCloud, said there is an unmet need for mental health solutions in today’s world.

“Our work has only just begun,” he said. “The reach of Amwell provides us with the access and resources to become the true global leader of digital mental health care delivery. The SilverCloud team has worked tirelessly for over a decade, and today becoming part of Amwell enables us to scale against our vision of effective mental healthcare for all.”

The other company Amwell has acquired is Conversa Health, an automated virtual care platform that helps healthcare organisations to remotely manage and engage patients by delivering configurable, automated text-based conversations to support a wide range of clinical needs.

Amwell’s chair and co-CEO, Ido Schoenberg, said future care delivery will blend in-person, virtual and digital care experiences and that by integrating SilverCloud and Conversa into the Amwell platform, it plans to continually scale digital healthcare services across the different sites of care.

“These acquisitions will amplify the presence and reach of care teams and reaffirm that as the needs of the healthcare marketplace evolve, so too will the Amwell platform,” he said.

The deals are expected to close in the third quarter of this year, subject to customary closing conditions.

Jenny Darmody is the editor of Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com