The €260m impact investment fund has invested into Happyneuron, a company specialised in cognitive health assessment and rehabilitation.
Raise Impact, the impact investment fund of French sustainable asset manager Raise Group, has acquired a majority stake in Happyneuron, an online platform specialised in cognitive health assessment and rehabilitation.
The platform offers 40 modules developed by and for medical health professionals, which include digital assessment and rehabilitation tools focused on key cognitive functions, such as hearing, language, neurological impairments in adults and mathematical cognition, to enable practitioners to work with greater precision, efficiency, and improve the levels of care offered to patients.
The company generates 70% of its revenue from subscriptions to its platform, which Raise Group said demonstrates a resilient business model with stable levels of user retention which allows significant reinvestment into R&D.
Speaking to Impact Investor, Serge Bedrossian, partner and co-head of Raise Impact, said France is the platform’s largest market where diagnosis for many cognitive disorders is slow due to high demand and limited availability.
“Happyneuron is helping to accelerate diagnosis in an environment where people, particularly those with ‘dys’ disorders, like dyslexia, dyspraxia or dysphasia, can wait for up to a year to be seen by a professional. This can make a huge impact, especially for children by ensuring they’re well supported and don’t miss out on one more year of school,” he said, adding that the strength of the platform’s offer is its science-based approach.
“There is an enormous amount of research and publications behind the platform’s assessments and tools. All their solutions are also designed by professionals based on their respective fields, helping practitioners know exactly what they need to look for in their patients, interpret the results and design the right care plan to follow,” he added.
Mission-driven investing
Happyneuron is the 18th investment in the €260m private equity fund, which focuses on taking active minority and majority controlling shares in European small and mid-cap growth companies, with ticket sizes ranging from €10m to €30m. The fund, which currently holds 16 investments in its portfolio, having divested from two companies to date, targets mission-driven companies which respond to challenges relating to energy transition, agricultural transition, circular economy and social inclusion.
The managers of Raise Impact, like the rest of the firm’s investment team, donate 50% of their carried interest to RAISE Sherpas, an internal endowment fund, which acts as a philanthropic accelerator dedicated to supporting mission-driven startups and charitable associations.
Raise Group said it would also help Happyneuron to develop a structured approach to more accurately measure and manage its impact on improving patient care.
Cognitive rehabilitation
Happyneuron’s cognitive assessment and rehabilitation, remediation and stimulation tools can be used for diagnosing and treating people with a range of conditions, including individuals who have suffered a stroke, sustained a traumatic brain injury or those with aphasia, ADHD, dementia and Alzheimer’s, among others.
“A lot of Happyneuron’s work is around the assessment. Making the right assessment allows for the right treatment, so that step is crucial in the process, especially when there are a variety of conditions that a single person might have,” said Bedrossian.
To date, the platform has mainly been used by speech therapists, more than 10,000 of whom have subscribed as users. It has also been adopted by hospitals and other healthcare professionals, including neuropsychologists and clinical psychologists, for the treatment of cognitive and language disorders.
The fund’s investment, for an undisclosed sum, will be used to grow Happyneuron’s client base of healthcare practitioners and explore new fields of therapy, including through external growth.
“We are looking at possible acquisitions for Happyneuron and integrating other companies that address very specific healthcare needs,” added Bedrossian.
The platform, which has also launched in Luxembourg, Belgium, Switzerland and North America, aims to use the investment to continue its expansion in these markets.
