Mental healthcare continues to be a top priority for businesses interested in keeping their employees long-term. As the pandemic rages on, the “Great Resignation” continues. People across the U.S. are choosing to leave their jobs for a number of reasons, and they’re leaving in droves. With the arrival of the Delta variant and the looming possibility of another lockdown, many are reevaluating their relationship with work and are instead choosing to prioritize their mental wellbeing.
Now, two California-based wellness leaders are joining forces to expand access to mental healthcare for businesses and their employees around the world.
Meditation app Headspace and mental healthcare platform Ginger announced plans to merge on Wednesday. The two companies will combine to form Headspace Health, a comprehensive digital mental health and wellbeing platform.
Ginger traditionally provides customers access to behavioral health coaches, therapists and psychiatrists via its mobile app. Headspace on the other hand, offers users access to a wide array of meditation, sleep and focus exercises via its own mobile offering.
Once the two companies join forces, Headspace Health plans to offer all of these things and more on a single platform. The new company will serve consumers, employers and health plans.
“We are witnessing a mental health crisis unlike anything we’ve experienced in our lifetimes, yet the majority of mental healthcare today is neither broadly accessible nor affordable,” CeCe Morken, CEO of Headspace, said in a statement.
Nearly half of adults in the U.S. reported symptoms of depression or anxiety during the pandemic, according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
“Together, as Headspace Health, we will address the systemic challenges of access and affordability in a fundamentally different way by creating the world’s most holistic, scalable and effective mental health and wellbeing company,” Morken continued.
The deal comes on the heels of 3x revenue growth for Ginger as demand for remote mental healthcare continues to remain high. The San Francisco-based platform has kept busy this year and raised $100 million in a Series E round back in March.
Headspace received a fresh investment of its own last year. The Santa Monica-based company raised $93 million in a Series C round in February 2020.
“Headspace and Ginger have a shared recognition that the mental health crisis can’t be solved by simply hiring more therapists or moving care online,” Russell Glass, CEO of Ginger, said in a statement. “Through this merger, we can uniquely tackle the full spectrum of mental health needs — from prevention to clinical care.”
Headspace Health will set out with a goal to serve 100 million customers across more than 190 countries worldwide.
