UpLift, a behavioral health company, announced Monday that it has acquired TAO Connect, a mental health company for higher education organizations.
Tampa, Florida-based UpLift offers virtual access to talk therapy, psychiatry and medication management services. It has a national network of nearly 2,000 providers and accepts insurance, including from Aetna, Cigna and UnitedHealthcare. Clearwater, Florida-based TAO Connect provides higher education institutions with online interactive programs and tools designed to tackle mental health. It offers modules on a variety of topics, including how to manage the first year of college, how to improve focus, and sexual assault prevention.
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UpLift’s acquisition of TAO Connect was a mix of cash and stock, but the companies did not share the purchase price. The companies are now launching TAO by UpLift, which gives institutions “access to a comprehensive higher ed mental healthcare solution, and the continuity of care designed to complement institutions’ counseling service offerings, all covered by insurance,” according to the announcement.
With the acquisition, UpLift now serves over 170 enterprise customers in the U.S. and Canada. It covers four million people, including more than two million students at more than 120 higher education institutions.
“The lack of access to affordable behavioral healthcare is a key driver in America’s mental health crisis and our students are struggling — increasingly anxious, depressed, and battling loneliness all while facing the pressure of academia,” said Kyle Talcott, founder and CEO of UpLift, in an email. “TAO is already on the ground, a 10-year-old, tried and proven, higher ed company with a clinically validated mental healthcare solution providing self-guided tools and resources for students that complements institutions’ counseling service offerings. “
When asked how TAO Connect will fit into UpLift’s operations, Talcott said the company is “thinking about it as business-as-usual in that we are maintaining the great momentum the TAO team has had with serving TAO’s higher education clients.” He added that UpLift has retained most of the TAO team.
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“We do have plans for both near and long-term product integrations — for example, creating synergies through seamless student referrals and care escalation processes — which our Product and Engineering teams are scoping,” Talcott said. “We are of course beginning to offer UpLift’s clinical services to higher education institutions.”
The acquisition comes at a time when 77% of college students battle mental health problems and 53% are unable to receive care, according to the American College Health Association. In addition, a recent survey looked at the reasons students didn’t seek care and found that 51% thought it was too expensive, 27% said wait times were too long and 27% said they couldn’t find care.
Dr. Sherry Benton, founder of TAO Connect, said the company has shared goals with UpLift, and the acquisition helps achieve those goals.
“Like UpLift, TAO Connect was conceived to fulfill the increasing demand for more accessible and better mental healthcare treatment options and solutions, including telehealth,” Benton said in an email. “As part of UpLift, we can now be more effective in servicing the higher ed market’s unmet needs, providing a continuum of mental health care that includes team-based therapy and psychiatry.”
UpLift’s acquisition of TAO Connect comes after the company acquired Minded in November. Minded is an online psychiatry provider focused on women. In July, UpLift also announced it raised $10.7 million in Series A funding, bringing its total funding to more than $22 million.
Other companies are also providing mental health care to college students, including TimelyCare and Lightfully Behavioral Health.
Photo credit: Bohdan Skrypnyk, Getty Images
