Mental Health Startup BetterUp Expands With Motive, Impraise Acquisitions

Mental health and virtual coaching startup BetterUp closed deals for the acquisition of two technology software firms, Motive and Impraise, in a move to further expand its human behavior and growth business.

Alexi Robichaux, CEO and co-founder of BetterUp, said in a press release on Friday (Sept. 17) that Motive and Impraise both offer a breadth of workforce talent in addition to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning expertise.

“Motive brings a wealth of expertise in creating technology that enriches the understanding of human emotion at scale, anartificial intelligenced Impraise has been relentlessly committed to cultivating environments for people to do their best work through intuitive technology,” Robichaux said.

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The acquisitions follow BetterUp’s milestone of surpassing one million individual coaching sessions and more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue. The Silicon Valley firm was launched in 2013 and recently opened offices in Munich and London.

Since launching, BetterUp has accumulated a trove of data relating to human behavior and growth using its proprietary AI capabilities. The behavioral insights helped steer the company’s coaching approach, which targets individual transformation and organizational growth.

Skyscanner, eBay, Achmea, Sony and CERN are just some of the big-name clients that Impraise and Motive previously worked with. Some are anticipated to join BetterUp’s customer base of more than 380 enterprise partners.

Based in Silicon Valley, Motive applies machine learning and natural language processing to multi-channel data to pain “precise, meaningful, and actionable insights about people’s experiences.” The company’s proprietary technology includes a “first-of-its-kind” Emotion API that can discern emotions in language.

Related reading: CVS Expands into Mental Health Counseling

Impraise, headquartered in Amsterdam, develops software that uses data and analysis to help organizations create “engaged, high-performing teams.” The company’s technological and regional expertise will help BetterUp scale in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

BetterUp offers individual and group coaching, counseling and mentorship at scale using a combination of AI technology and behavioral science. The company has the world’s largest network of coaches, with more than 2,500 professionals coaching people in 46 languages across 90-plus countries. BetterUp also has a library of interactive professional development content, analytics and real-time insights to track progress.