Heal Capital is excited to back Actio… Here’s why!
Choosing to live a healthy life and actually following through on it, are two very different processes. While everyone has created New Year resolutions, many of us can admit that we failed to stay committed. That comes to no surprise as sticking to a commitment like exercising, meditating, and all these other aspects of self-improvement requires energy and motivation.
Many health apps have been developed to help individuals meet these goals, providing exercise classes online or meditation guidance that you can listen to via your smartphone. The mobile fitness and mental wellbeing market are bustling and worth €27bn in Europe alone in 2019. This has further grown with the COVID-19 pandemic, as more people turn to online or hybrid delivery models to meet their health goals. However, current apps face the same setbacks users have, which is the challenge of staying engaged and committed.
That’s why Heal Capital has decided to invest in Actio and its mission to keep their users 10x more active. We have firm belief in the product and impact, the team behind it, and its growth potential for healthcare and beyond.
What is Actio
Actio is an app released in December 2020 that created a live and interactive platform connecting users to real coaches worldwide that guide lessons on a variety of wellbeing topics from yoga to fitness, meditation and more.
However, Actio is much more than a typical health app that we all have forgotten on our phone. The Actio team saw that within this market a key setback was that there lacked the necessary tools to keep users engaged. Many of us can admit that we’ve downloaded these health apps before, only to forget them once we start to feel better, thus losing our progress and falling back on old habits.
That is precisely why Heal Capital has decided to back Actio, as we believe they have found the golden ticket.
Actio’s product addresses this challenge threefold by being a mobile application with:
(i) a direct call to the user,
(ii) from a live coach and
(iii) in an interactive and social setting.
Already, within the space of virtual social events, there has been tremendous growth. This can be partly attributed to COVID, which has forced companies and institutions into the virtual system. Nowadays, we conduct our daily work and interactions all on virtual platforms like Zoom. Further developments have been in this space with apps like Clubhouse, which is an exclusive, invite-only audio app where participants can move around virtual rooms discussing whatever they prefer. Pelaton is another great example, which is an exercise bike paired with a touchscreen that streams live cycling videos to boost your experience and keep you hooked. We believe that Actio will establish itself as the virtual platform in the field of health tech.
Growth Potential and Health Impact
Heal Capital invested in Actio for its product, its team, but also most importantly its never-ending potential to address significant health challenges for patients.
Heal Capital has been keeping its eyes on digital therapeutic applications, already we have published three articles on the subject. We believe in the potential of the field, but until Actio we saw that it faced a big setback.
We realised that many DTx solutions might be working in trial settings but were failing to achieve acceptable retention rates in real world environments. These apps provided small notifications and nudges towards broad health goals (improved nutrition and uptake in exercise); however, this was not enough to keep users on track and our healthcare system is starting to pay relevant fees.
Actio is still in its early phase and has started small, focusing on well-adopted health trends like yoga and meditation. However, the team is not one to stay complacent and comfortable. It has the drive to expand its reach, focusing on various lifestyle interventions needed to also help patients deal with difficult, high impact diseases.
