Holly Health, a digital health coach to support behaviour change, has raised £1.4 million in funding from investors.
The funding will be used to support the company’s work into sustainable behavioural change across populations and to tailor its digital health coach for healthy ageing support.
Age UK Lewisham and Southwark has partnered with the company, which will see 6,000 older adults adopt the app over the next 18 months, and if proven successful the tool could scale across the Age UK network. The aim of the project is to use the tool to help improve the physical and mental health of 50-70+ year olds, slow the onset of chronic conditions and support cardiovascular health and musculoskeletal issues.
Grace Gimson, CEO and Co-founder, Holly Health, commented on the news: “We’re over the moon to partner with Age UK Lewisham and Southwark. We know our digital health coach helps people make lasting changes to their health and wellbeing, but this project will give us the insights to develop a version of the app that best meets the needs of older adults. I know we’ll be able to show just how important digital health tools are in supporting community health. By catalysing adoption of these technologies to population level, we’re able to help more people feel better as they age.”
Ross Diamond, CEO of Age UK Lewisham and Southwark, added: “Age UK Lewisham and Southwark exists to improve the lives of older people, working towards a future in which all people are valued, safe, and empowered to make choices about their lives.
“We firmly believe that working with Holly Health to develop a coaching app for health behaviour changes tailored for use by older people will help us meet this aim – notably the promotion of health and wellbeing – through helping to provide tools that can enable more older people to positively manage their own health and wellbeing.”
The £1.4 million raised has been supported by investors including Kima Ventures, Dr Fiona Pathiraja founder of Crista Galli Ventures, Paul Forster, Ed Cooke and Silicon Valley based Very Serious Ventures.
