Mental health benefits provider Lyra Health is making a habit out of starting the new year with a ton of momentum.
In January 2021, Lyra closed $187M in Series E funding and entered a partnership with ICAS World to bring its benefits overseas. This week, the company raised another $235M at a $5.58B valuation, while announcing the acquisition of ICAS World as it begins to make international expansion a top priority.
- Lyra provides a suite of in-person and virtual behavioral health benefits to over 75 large employers, offering accessible treatments for conditions such as depression and anxiety that are often stigmatized in the workplace.
- The latest raise pushes Lyra’s private funding total to $916M and ranks it among the most well-funded companies in one of the hottest corners of the digital health market. The timing follows Lyra’s September announcement of a trio of new solutions designed to address complex conditions such as alcohol use disorder and suicidality.
- ICAS World is a global employee assistance provider with a specialist network that offers “culturally responsive care” and localized support in more than 155 countries and 66 languages.
- The acquisition greatly expands Lyra’s worldwide reach, allowing it to provide mental health coaching, therapy, and medication within a single platform to over 10M global members. That’s a big jump from the 2.2M members covered by Lyra prior to the acquisition.
The Takeaway
Lyra’s employer-facing model has quickly gained traction in the US, but mental health challenges are hardly isolated to US-based employees. The WHO estimates that productivity losses due to depression and anxiety cost the global economy $1T annually. Mental healthcare is a global challenge, and the ICAS acquisition is a large step towards making Lyra a global solution.
