Self Space, the world’s first on-demand mental health service on the high street, has secured £2.25m in Seed funding.
With the UK facing a mental health crisis, the need for mental health services continues to grow, appointments are becoming harder to find and millions of hours are being spent sitting in A&E waiting rooms.
This new funding, led by purpose-driven VC, Redrice Ventures, will help Self Space combat the demand by expanding its offering of same-day mental health support in London and across the UK and the mental health spectrum. Not just for when people are in crisis, but inviting people to proactively engage in therapy.
They will launch two new high street locations and hire 75 new therapists, psychotherapists and counsellors to support them. Its hybrid approach to therapy will also continue to provide virtual sessions seven days a week while furthering the development of a tech-led psychoeducation platform to support more workplaces to become mentally healthy.
Since launching in 2019, Self Space has facilitated more than 60,700 sessions across its four locations. The brand’s latest and largest site was launched this September in the heart of London’s Soho, making a further 17,000 sessions available to people each year. The new funding will enable Self Space to offer another 34,000 sessions in 2024 alone.
Jodie Cariss, founder and CEO of Self Space says: “Since starting Self Space, our mission has been to provide straightforward access to flexible therapy, offering a good conversation with a qualified person seven days a week, with no waitlist and same-day bookings available.
“There are currently 1.2 million on the NHS waiting lists for mental health care. This is exactly the problem Self Space was set up to solve. This investment will allow us to continue expanding and get closer to our mission”.
Self Space’s rapid growth has meant a 48 per cent increase in the number of sessions it delivers annually, made possible by its growing team. In four years, the team has grown from five to 100, spanning a diverse range of qualified therapists and counsellors across the country, specialising in different modalities, languages, backgrounds and specialisms.
In 2024, Self Space will continue to focus on its disruptive approach to mental health, creating culture-shifting pop-up therapy across the UK and Ibiza, as well as expanding its in-person offering and launching a new digital platform.
At the same time as increasing support on the high street, Self Space is working with some of the world’s leading brands encouraging businesses to put mental health on the agenda with a proactive, preventative approach.
Working with more than 150 businesses, including RedBull, Omnicom, Papier, Huel, Depop, Google and Havas, Self Space moves away from reactive, light-touch mental health policies and outdated EAP schemes, towards tangible measures that move the dial on mental health.
From one-to-one therapy sessions, staff training and psychoeducation workshops, the new funds will enable Self Space to continue its support, reaching more businesses committed to supporting their team’s mental health in a meaningful way – not because it makes sense from a profitability and productivity perspective, but because they want to substantially impact on a human level.
On the investment, Johnny Heilbron of Redrice Ventures says: “Self Space has demonstrated a unique potential to revolutionise the way that individuals think, talk and use therapy to support their mental health.
“They have built a hybrid therapy model, providing both in-person and online therapy sessions with highly trained and diverse therapists. We are proud to have led this investment and look forward to joining them on their growth journey.”
