Berlin-based Digital Health Start-up HelloBetter raises millions in seed funding round

The innovation leader in the e-mental health sector receives seed financing in the single-digit million Euro range and announces the establishment of a scientific advisory board and a council of industry experts.

Berlin, April 9, 2020 – Get.On Institut GmbH, which operates under the brand name HelloBetter since the beginning of the year, today announced the closing of a financing round in the single-digit million range. Together with funds raised by its research team, the start-up now has almost five million euros at its disposal to finance further growth. Already in late summer 2019, the first money was made available through a convertible loan, enabling the team to expand from five to around 40 employees. The lead investor of the round is an holding company based in Hamburg. Other investors in the round include the Ideamed Gesundheitsgruppe from Munich (a psychotherapeutic hospital operator), and a consortium of business angels from the health and insurance sectors.

Hannes Klöpper, CEO of HelloBetter: “More than one in four adults in Germany meet the diagnosis criteria of a mental disorder in any given year. At the same time, it takes about 20 weeks on average to get treatment at a licensed therapist in Germany. The new investment is the next step on our way to make evidence-based mental health care universally accessible and affordable for everyone.“

“We will use the investment for the development of a new digital platform that will further improve the quality of our offer, as well as for sales and marketing,” Hannes Klöpper continues.

HelloBetter was founded in 2015 under the name GET.ON Institut. From the beginning, the company has been a close partner of BARMER, a major German health insurer, in the field of e-mental health. It now has around 40 employees at offices in Berlin and Hamburg. Unlike many players in the market for digital health solutions, HelloBetter already has comprehensive study results on the effectiveness of its trainings and has thus been the innovation leader in the e-mental health sector for years.

Prof. Dr. David Daniel Ebert, founder and scientific director of HelloBetter: “With the help of the investment and the already proven effectiveness of our online trainings (32 randomized clinical studies), we see ourselves well-prepared to swiftly establish our products in routine care with the help of the Digital Care Act”.

In order to ensure that the latest scientific research is always available, the startup has established a scientific advisory board. Members of the board include leading German scientists in the field of Digital Mental Health and psychotherapy research such as Prof. Matthias Berking (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg), Prof. Martin Hautzinger (University of Tübingen), Prof. Burkhardt Funk and Prof. Dirk Lehr (both Leuphana University Lüneburg) as well as international leading researchers such as Prof. Barr Taylor (Stanford University), Prof. Ron Kessler (Harvard University), Prof. Dr. Gerhard Andersson (Linköping University), Prof. Heleen Riper and Prof. Pim Cuijpers (both Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam).

In addition, HelloBetter has also formed a council of industry experts. In addition to Ludwig Klitzsch, the Managing Director of the Ideamed Health Group and investor in the current round, this includes Dr med. Iris Hauth, former President and Member of the Board of the German Society for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychosomatics and Neurology (DGPPN), as well as Dr Markus Hamm, former CEO of Schön Kliniken, and other experts from the health and insurance industry. In close cooperation between the two bodies, HelloBetter will continue to expand its range of evidence-based and scientifically-proven programmes in the future and make them an integral part of the global mental health care landscape.