Wayne, PA and Boston, MA, April 16, 2015 ¬– meQuilibrium, an online platform that beats stress, builds resilience and promotes healthy behavior, announced that it raised a $9 million Series B financing round led by Safeguard Scientifics (NYSE:SFE) with participation by Chrysalis Ventures and other investors. meQuilibrium will use proceeds from the funding to accelerate sales and marketing, and expand product development.
meQuilibrium is the only company that offers an individualized, online stress management program based on building resilience—defined as ¬the capacity to rebound or bounce back from adversity, conflict, failure and also positive events, progress and increased responsibility. The science-based, clinically validated solution is based on decades of research at the University of Pennsylvania, which reveals that stress and resilience are linked. Furthermore, researchers found that coaching can improve resilience, providing a lifetime of benefit including reducing the effects of stress.
Studies show that up to 95% of U.S. workers experience moderate to severe stress, which leads to increased absenteeism, injury and turnover costs and reduced productivity. These factors cost U.S. businesses an estimated $300 billion annually, and healthcare expenditures are estimated to be 50% greater for high-stress workers.
Large employers, including Comcast, HP, Grant Thornton, Nemours and Meredith, use meQuilibrium as part of their human capital strategies to empower their employees to manage stress, to boost positivity and performance and to make healthier choices. Designed for mobile and desktop use, meQuilibrium delivers a scalable software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that guides users through a journey that begins with a personalized assessment to a long-term roadmap focused on critical skills to boost resilience. Additionally, intelligence from the meQuilibrium users, in aggregate, fuels a new generation of helpful metrics and insights on workforce well-being that can inform human capital strategies and decision-making.
“Stress is the #1 threat to employee well-being today—contributing to chronic health conditions, absence, lost productivity and unhealthy lifestyle behaviors,” said Jan Bruce, CEO of meQuilibrium. “Resilience is the antidote and the unsung hero in the wellness and health continuum. It can impact business in a way that wellness solutions don’t even begin to address. Building individual resilience is the pathway to improved personal performance and to unlocking the collective potential for every company. meQuilibrium is bringing the power of resilience to employers to impact hard core business processes and achieve measurable results, while boosting every employee’s personal sense of well-being.”
“Stress is ubiquitous, and as a result, typical analog solutions such as therapy or counseling lack the scale required to tackle the problem for the vast majority of those dealing with the stress,” said Gary J. Kurtzman, MD, Managing Director, Healthcare at Safeguard, who will be joining meQuilibrium’s board of directors. “meQuilibrium takes the science and success of resilience and makes it available via a digital platform. We look forward to working with Jan and the team to make meQuilibrium a success.”
“Safeguard’s investment is an endorsement of Jan, the team of experienced professionals she has assembled and their vision of helping employees overcome challenges both at work and at home,” said Wright Steenrod, meQuilibrium board member and Partner at Chrysalis Ventures. “We are excited to partner with Safeguard to grow this promising and innovative digital business.”
About meQuilibrium
meQuilibrium is a SaaS platform that helps users build resilience, beat stress, and adopt healthy behavior for life. The clinically validated, HIPAA compliant platform, delivers an individualized digital coaching experience via the web and mobile devices. meQuilibrium services two key markets: large enterprise companies, eager to stem the estimated $300 billion they lose each year in employee absenteeism and lost productivity due to stress, and payors and health plans seeking to drive differentiation and innovation in an era of consumer-driven healthcare. meQuilibrium also serves individuals looking to improve the quality of their lives. meQuilibrium’s digital program is based on the clinically validated research of Chief Science Office and Brookings Institution Fellow Dr. Andrew Shatté and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Adam Perlman, Executive Director of Integrative Medicine and Wellness at Duke University. CEO Jan Bruce, lends her experience as a successful entrepreneur and subject matter expert in consumer health and wellness to the leadership of the organization. Jan is a thought leader and a regular contributor to Forbes and The Huffington Post. For additional information, please visit www.mequilibrium.com or Follow Us on Twitter @meQuilibrium.
About Safeguard Scientifics
Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. (NYSE:SFE) has a distinguished track record of fostering innovation and building market leaders. For six decades, Safeguard has been providing growth capital and operational support to entrepreneurs across an evolving spectrum of industries. Today, Safeguard is focused specifically on two sectors—healthcare and technology. Specifically, Safeguard targets early- and growth-stage companies in advertising technology, digital media, financial technology, enterprise software, Internet of Things, devices, diagnostics, digital health and healthcare IT. For more information, please visit www.safeguard.com or Follow Us on Twitter @safeguard.
Forward-looking Statements
Except for the historical information and discussions contained herein, statements contained in this release may constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Our forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties. The risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially include, among others, our ability to make good decisions about the deployment of capital, the fact that our partner companies may vary from period to period, our substantial capital requirements and absence of liquidity from our partner company holdings, fluctuations in the market prices of our publicly traded partner company holdings, competition, our inability to obtain maximum value for our partner company holdings, our ability to attract and retain qualified employees, market valuations in sectors in which our partner companies operate, our inability to control our partner companies, our need to manage our assets to avoid registration under the Investment Company Act of 1940, and risks associated with our partner companies, including the fact that most of our partner companies have a limited history and a history of operating losses, face intense competition and may never be profitable, the effect of economic conditions in the business sectors in which Safeguard’s partner companies operate, and other uncertainties described in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Many of these factors are beyond the Company’s ability to predict or control. As a result of these and other factors, the Company’s past financial performance should not be relied on as an indication of future performance. The Company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements or other information contained in this press release.
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