Calm App Looks To Expand Mental Health Services With Acquisition Of Ripple Health Group
Calm, the relaxation app, announced it had acquired Ripple Health group on Wednesday, in a move that sees both services hoping to grow and give more people access to mental health help.
Calm is an app that aids with sleep and meditation with a focus on lowering stress and anxiety, while Ripple Health Group is a health technology company that helps connect people with proper healthcare. With the move, Ripple CEO David Ko will now share the title with Michael Acton Smith, the co-founder of Calm.
“We were just thrilled when conversations turned to what we could do together,” Smith told CNBC in an interview Tuesday.
“Could we put these two amazing businesses, Calm and Ripple, together to change the world, to bend the health care curve and get close to solving the global mental health crisis,” he added.
Calm currently costs either $14.99 a month or $69.99 for the year. Users can also try the app for free through a free 7-day trial. Smith explained that with the acquisition, he would like to make the app more affordable to a wider audience with different pricing options.
“Expanding into Calm Health and the health care space will allow us to reach many, many more people and make service available at different price points,” Smith said.
Ripple will still continue to build up its inner services “Care Memo” and “LikePaper” which Ripple uses to help “ health plans, provider systems, nursing/LTC facilities, and in-home care teams to ease the administrative burden of monitoring members and communicating with families,” according to Ripple's website.
The value of the acquisition was not disclosed by either company.
Calm was last valued in December of 2020 at $2 billion, according to CNBC.
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