Speek raises $1m to tackle teenage self harm
[Content note: the below post contains reference to self harm]
We are delighted to share Zinc’s pre-seed investment in Speek, a health tech start-up tackling one of the most complex challenges in mental health – teenage self harm. Founders Nessrin Younes and Kanu Batra met as part of Zinc’s fourth venture building cohort, united by a mission to ensure that every young person can develop and maintain good mental and emotional health.
This $1m pre-seed fundraise, with participation from Octopus First Cheque, Syndicate Room, Lightbulb Trust, Daring Capital and a line-up of prominent angel investors and family offices, will allow Speek to build out its technology to scale to 10,000+ families across the UK, broaden its partnerships with NHS and insurers, and launch new care offerings in 2025.
A hidden epidemic
One in five teens self-harm and the second most Googled question by parents of teenagers is “Why do teens cut themselves?” This hidden epidemic affects over 10 million families across the UK and USA.* In a world where children and young people’s mental health is slowly getting increased attention, self injury remains undiscussed, unsupported and under-funded.
Clinical research shows that parental support is one of the key markers of recovery from self harm. Unfortunately, the current situation for families is dire – with average wait times of eight weeks before first contact with professional help, limited support for parents from the NHS and private specialised care being restricted to those who can afford it at £150 per hour.
An extremely complex mental health challenge
Self harm is an incredibly complex issue with many factors contributing to its difficulty to solve, including multiple underlying causes, high levels of stigma and shame, and a chronic lack of access to information and affordable support. Addressing this challenge in a meaningful, long-term way requires a multifaceted approach that involves collaboration between families, schools, and mental health professionals, underpinned by an innovative approach to digital technologies.
With access to the right support, recovery is possible – and this is where Speek comes in. Speek’s model for families provides integrated care that is effective and accessible, combining algorithm-driven question sets, clinically researched content, affordable group therapy and a recovery focussed community.
Changing the Status Quo
Speek’s vision is to connect every family affected by self harm to a parent-first clinical care model, reducing recovery time by 40% and cutting costs in half. The team have already built a community of 7,000+ parents, enrolled hundreds of participants in clinical programs, built partnerships with 50+ schools, and it is now live in NHS clinics.
The engagement, retention and outcomes achieved with their app to date have been off the charts, with 83% active usage (compared to an industry average for mental health apps of just 17%) and 92% of parents saying they feel confident in supporting their child through episodes of self-harm.
Speek’s mission to provide world-class clinical care for families affected by teenage self injury sits right at the core of Zinc’s thesis of building commercial solutions to solve the world’s most pressing and complex challenges. We’re incredibly impressed by Kanu, Nessrin and the team’s ability to move quickly, build meaningful partnerships and stay focussed on impact and clinical outcomes as they scale commercially. This truly is the right team to be working on this problem.
We’re excited to partner with the team as they continue to build and grow through this next phase of their journey as they first solve for self-harm, then move onto other serious mental health conditions in children.
Speek is open for families across the UK to join the platform. Parents can easily sign up through the website at lets-speek.com.
*References
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24422986/ | https://yourteenmag.com/family-life/communication/parenting-topics | https://goodlifefamilymag.com/2021/12/02/the-top-eight-question-parents-of-teens-google-most/
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