Inclusive Mental Health App Shine Acquired By Headspace Health
Headspace Health is acquiring Shine, a mental health and wellness app dedicated to providing an inclusive mental health experience for the BIPOC community.
Founded in 2016, Shine has more than 45,000 paid subscribers and has reached over six million people by offering self-guided content. It also offers daily mediations, self-care courses, personalized support, and virtual workshops hosted by third-party experts and its community.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Still, Headspace Health says the acquisition of the New York-based company will expand its ability to provide more inclusive self-care content to its growing global member base.
The acquisition comes as Headspace and Ginger merged last year to form Headspace Health, which is valued at $3 billion. The merger brought Ginger’s therapy and coaching offerings together with Headspace’s mindfulness and meditation services.
This marks Headspace Health’s second acquisition this year.
In January, it announced the purchase of Sayana, which offers mental wellness and sleep apps. Sayana is a maker of AI-enabled mental health-tracking and sleep apps.
Despite the number of competitors in the space, mental health is still a leading clinical area in digital health funding.
A Rock Health report on the digital health investment landscape through the year’s first half noted merger and acquisition activity has slowed compared with 2021.
What happens now? Shine’s cofounders and co-CEOs Marah Lidey and Naomi Hirabayashi will take on leadership roles in Headspace’s product and marketing teams. Some Shine engineers and leaders in its client successes and marketing groups will also move to Headspace.
“The acquisition of the Shine app underscores the continuing importance of infusing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging into the fabric of everything we do,” Headspace CEO Russell Glass said in a statement.
“By integrating both the robust content and talented team from Shine, we’ll be able to collectively scale the diversity of offerings and experiences that we can bring to our customers and members,” he added.
