Changing Health, a Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK-based provider of digital behaviour change programs, secured £3m in funding.
The round was led by Shift Invest, with participation from Tate & Lyle Ventures and the North East Innovation Fund supported by the European Regional Development Fund, and managed by Northstar Ventures.
The company intends to use the funds to launch and scale two new programmes: one for people at risk of developing Type 2 diabetes and another for people who need support in managing their weight and drive growth in the UK and overseas.
Spun out of Newcastle University and Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in August 2016 by by John Grumitt (left) and Professor Mike Trenell, Changing Health combines evidenced psychological tools with technology to enable people to improve their lifestyle habits.
The company provides its programs to private and public healthcare providers and insurers, and is currently adopted by 30 NHS organizations across the UK. Users progress through a series of app-based learning modules to give them understanding of their health, and are then assigned a lifestyle coach, professionally trained in health psychology, to mentor them on regular phone calls and digital interactions for up to 12 months.
In 2019, Changing Health will launch an AI platform for its UK and international partners to deliver an entirely personalized experience for each user. The platform will leverage big data to proactively identify the social, environmental or demographic factors most likely to influence users’ lifestyle behaviours – “person X feels they are too busy to exercise, most friends drink 3-4 times per week, they live within 500 metres of 3 takeaways,” for example – and provide a bespoke intervention for maximum impact.
FinSMEs
20/12/2018