First, a few stats:
- An estimated 122 million Americans, or 37% of the population, live in mental health professional shortage areas.
- The ratio is smaller than one mental health professional per 30,000 people.
- $30B was invested into digital health startups in 2021.
- 60% of employees would feel more motivated at work – and would be more likely to recommend their organization as a good place to work – if their employer took more action to support mental health.
To us, that sounds like a real problem that needs a real solution. Over the past few years we’ve seen a number of different approaches aimed at solving this gap. Many of these approaches emphasize only one modality or dimension of wellness – i.e. providing only digital services or solving for mental health without solving for physical or financial wellbeing.
We believe that to better maximize personal health, solutions must take into account all factors that contribute to one’s wellbeing and take an all-encompassing approach. This means also offering different modalities for varying preferences since health is not a one-size-fits-all.
That is why we are excited to back Amelia Wilcox, founder of Salt Lake City-based Nivati. Congrats to the team!
Nivati Secures $4M Seed Round to Scale its Mental Health Platform
Nivati will build on its holistic approach to employee mental health through its hybrid platform
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH – March 30, 2022 – Today Nivati, a holistic mental health platform for employees, announced an oversubscribed seed round of $4 million led by FireBrand Ventures, with participation from Peak and Access Venture Partners.
In addition to Nivati’s highly-rated clinical therapy offering, Nivati is set to launch a curated content marketplace that will provide tools and support in new areas empirically linked to mental wellness. This expansion follows an overwhelmingly successful response to the newly added sleep and financial wellbeing resources.
Nivati’s core focus is increasing accessibility to quality employee mental health support services. According to the American Psychological Association, people in 2022 will feel less able to manage their stress, with over 41% of respondents reporting symptoms of anxiety and depression. With average wait times for talk therapy through insurance and EAPs currently at 5-8 weeks, Nivati is tackling this problem head-on.
“What we’ve learned is that mental health is not a one-size-fits-all solution–people have a variety of life factors that negatively affect their mental health, which require a variety of solutions,” said Amelia Wilcox, Founder and CEO at Nivati. “To really tackle this problem, it demands more resources than just access to therapy, and we are excited to be the first to start bringing these solutions together.”
Nivati’s blend of one-on-one sessions and self-service tools creates a more holistic and personalized approach to mental health for employees. Each Nivati member can discover customized solutions for their specific needs, build a custom plan, and tackle personal challenges to improve mental fitness with tools from financial wellbeing to nutrition to clinical therapy.
“Firebrand was drawn to Nivati by the uniquely well-rounded approach they are taking to mental health and we believe this is more important now than ever.” said Chris Marks of Firebrand Ventures. “They’re driven to help people improve their mental wellness and this new round of
funding will help Nivati continue to provide employees and their families with the exact type of mental health support they need, when they need it.”
Nivati’s mental health solution includes virtual therapy, meditation, yoga, sleep, finance, fitness, massage, life coaching, financial wellness, and nutrition content – all provided live and on-demand. This funding will allow Nivati to increase their team in engineering, sales, and product and expand their expert content providers.
About Nivati
Nivati provides the most tools for employee mental health and wellbeing and the easiest HR implementation and management of any employee benefit. Since excellent mental health requires more than just counseling, Nivati helps companies optimize employee mental wellbeing and improve employee engagement, retention, and overall health with a broad array of options.
