Spanish HRtech ifeel, an emotional well-being service for companies, has raised a €10M Series A investment led by Austrian VC firm UNIQA Ventures, in which Nauta Capital and other investors have also participated.
1 in 6.8 people experience mental health problems in the workplace. ifeel aims to fill a much-needed gap in the market as employers look to address the emotional well-being of their employees. In total, ifeel has raised €18M since its inception in 2017, and this additional €10M investment will be used to expand the business into new markets, introduce new products, and increase sales capabilities. Further, the company will continue to focus on large companies.
“Health requires a balance between what goes on at work and outside of it. For us, there is no strict division between professional and personal life; everything is personal. We firmly believe that work should not be a reason to interrupt taking care of our well-being. On the contrary: it should be a space where we are well and can thrive at different levels. From this point on, our goal is to help companies integrate this mindset into their corporate culture,” said ifeel’s CEO Amir Kaplan.
UNIQA Ventures said, “A strong European player with a B2B2C mental health platform. Its tools make it possible to serve large clients with many end users at the same time while maintaining attractive commercial margins.”
Spanish startup with diverse roots
ifeel was founded by Amir Kaplan, Martín Villanueva, and Gabriele Murrone, born in Tel Aviv, Mexico City, and Nardò (Italy), who met in Madrid while studying for their MBA at IE Business School. The catalyst was after them witnessing first-hand difficulties accessing an agile, affordable, and online therapy service with the right psychologist. After studying other markets where online therapy is much more consolidated, they decided to undertake a similar initiative in Spain.
The Madrid startup uses AI with individual therapy sessions with psychologists. The service provides HR managers with information on employee psychological well-being and is used by AXA Partners, SCOR SE, Glovo, Travelperk, Gympass, Thoughtworks, González Byass amongst others.
Through their tools, an individual can access different resources depending on their needs and interests: articles on health-related topics, an emotions diary, audio guides, and tools to facilitate relaxation or meditation. They can also speak directly to professional psychologists or initiate an online therapy session through the service.
Further, the service is available in 21 languages, has more than 600 psychologists on board across 23 countries and has been used by more than 800,000 individuals worldwide.
One of the latest features is the monthly check-up or Ryff’s Emotional Wellbeing Index developed in collaboration with University of Wisconsin-Madison, Professor Carol Ryff. The questionnaire based on Ryff’s psychological well-being scale uses 18 questions to gauge people’s emotional health. The results serve as a way for the individuals to see how their emotional health evolves month-to-month and use them in their discussion with their psychologist if they want.
The aggregated anonymous – confidentiality is guaranteed – data can be accessed by HR managers to better understand difficulties employees are experiencing in terms of psychological well-being of the firm, helping them make the best decisions for overall employee well-being.
Currently, ifeel’s team has around 80 members, where 40% of the staff is international, 31% male, 69% female, and 60% of the team has joined in the last 2 years.
