JAAQ has raised £13 million, taking the London-founded mental health platform to Series A stage.
The round included Meridian Health Ventures, Fuel Ventures, Bolt Angels and Guinness Ventures. The company will use the funding to expand its work with employers, insurers and healthcare organisations, strengthen its clinical systems and support growth in the US.
Its platform is already used through organisations covering more than 1.5 million eligible lives. The model centres on placing mental health content inside existing digital services rather than relying on people to seek out a separate app.
JAAQ has built a library of more than 10,000 clinically reviewed videos and uses AI-led tools to tailor how that material appears within customer, patient and employee journeys. Organisations can either license the content for use in their own products or use a hosted JAAQ service.
Leadership has also changed as the company enters its next phase. Alex Packham has joined as chief executive officer, while chief product and technology officer Saurabh Johri is leading product and engineering.
Packham previously built a business that was acquired by Adobe. Johri, who holds a PhD, brings more than 20 years of experience in AI and healthcare, according to the company.
Access model
JAAQ is positioning itself at a time when demand for mental health support continues to outstrip available clinical capacity. Its approach is to place structured information and guidance inside services already used by staff, policyholders and patients, with employers, insurers and healthcare providers acting as distribution partners.
That reflects a wider shift in digital health, as companies try to improve engagement by embedding services into established workflows and platforms. For mental health providers, a persistent challenge has been sustaining use after the initial sign-up, especially in consumer apps.
JAAQ argues that clinically governed content and AI systems can help organisations direct users to information in ways that are both relevant and safe. It says trust and clinical oversight are central to its design, particularly when AI is used in healthcare-related settings.
Alex Packham, chief executive officer of JAAQ, said, "We have a structural problem in mental health: demand is infinite, capacity is finite. The answer isn't choosing between technology and therapists, it's using technology to reach millions of people who will never see a therapist. Clinically governed mental health content, embedded inside the digital experiences people already use, is how we close that gap. But this isn't just a mental health story, it's a digital engagement story too. Organisations want their users to actually engage with what they build. JAAQ is the platform that makes both happen, safely and at scale."
Product build
Johri said the company is developing systems that combine conversational AI with video-based content. The aim is to present information in formats users already recognise while maintaining clinical controls over what is delivered and how it is surfaced.
That approach places JAAQ in a crowded digital mental health market, but with a focus on business-to-business distribution rather than direct-to-consumer subscription products. Employers and insurers have become increasingly important buyers of mental health tools as they look for lower-cost ways to widen access to support.
"Having worked across healthcare for two decades, from research through to product, I've learned that what separates platforms that get adopted from those that don't is trust: earned through clinical rigour, and through personalised experiences that reflect the individual, not the population. Mental health is not one size fits all, and the content and processes that govern what we deliver reflect that," said Johri.
He added: "What excites me about JAAQ is the content proposition itself. We're developing a new modality that combines conversational AI with video to give people a simple, tailored way to understand their health. Not another chatbot. Something that meets people where they are, in a format that feels native to how they already consume information, underpinned by clinical credibility at every layer."
On the platform build, he added: "The infrastructure we're building is designed to make that experience scalable, safe and deeply integrated into the digital environments where people already are."
Investor view
Meridian Health Ventures partner Dr Pooja Sikka has joined the board as part of the investment. Her appointment adds sector-specific investor oversight as the company seeks broader commercial adoption.
"JAAQ is solving a critical problem in mental health: not replacing care, but unlocking access to it. Their clinically governed approach and institutional integrations are exactly what the market needs. Their approach is unique. We believe JAAQ will become the infrastructure of mental health engagement for healthcare systems at a time when demand is overwhelming," said Sikka.
Fuel Ventures also backed the round. "We're delighted to be backing Alex again. What stood out to us is JAAQ's ability to combine purpose with a commercially robust model. This is a platform designed for real-world adoption, scale and business impact, not just downloads," said Shiv Patel, partner at Fuel Ventures.