IP Group plc - Portfolio company ieso raises £39 million Series B financing

IP Group plc (LSE: IPO) ("IP Group" or "the Group"), the developer of intellectual property-based businesses, is pleased to announce that Ieso Digital Health Ltd ("ieso" or "the Company"), a UK leader in digital mental healthcare, announced it has completed a £39m Series B round of investment to develop clinical software treatments built on the world's largest mental health treatment data set.

The round was led by investment firm Morningside, with further new investment from Sony Innovation Fund alongside existing shareholders IP Group, Molten Ventures and Ananda Impact Ventures.

Following completion of the fundraise, IP Group has an undiluted beneficial holding of 32.3% in ieso, valued at £21.8m, representing a net unrealised fair value gain to the Group of approximately £2m. IP Group committed £6.1m to the funding round.

The funds raised will help ieso address the global mental health crisis by developing autonomous therapy systems that match the high standards of human care delivery, at significantly lower cost to health systems. These new tools could improve the lives of the 500 million people globally who struggle with their mental and behavioural health every day but cannot access appropriate personalised care.

ieso's AI-enabled digital assessment tools and therapeutics for mental health conditions will build on the insights developed from the world's largest outcomes-linked therapy dataset, which surpasses 460,000 hours. The data encompasses insight into, and treatment of, common mental health conditions including depression and anxiety and those linked with long term conditions such as diabetes. ieso intends to seek regulatory approval for its autonomous digital tools in the US and UK ahead of bringing them to those markets. The Company will extend its commercial teams to the US and target co-development and distribution partnerships that can facilitate scalable market access.

Dr Sam Williams, Managing Partner of Life Sciences at IP Group plc, said: "ieso has a unique clinical data-set and has already proven it can use this to significantly improve outcomes. As a founding shareholder, we are delighted to continue to support the company in its mission to improve patient care through the development of digital therapeutics that address the huge unmet need in mental health."

ieso will also continue to make its digital therapy service available to more than 20 million people in the UK via existing partnerships, including with the NHS. Working with its network of highly-qualified therapists and wellbeing practitioners, ieso will develop products that work in a real-world clinical setting and strive to maintain the continual recovery improvements it has seen over the past five years.

For more information, please contact:

Notes for editors

About IP Group

IP Group is a leading intellectual property commercialisation company which focuses on evolving great ideas, mainly from its partner universities, into world-changing businesses. The Group has pioneered a unique approach to developing these ideas and the resulting businesses by providing access to business building expertise, capital (through its 100%-owned FCA-authorised subsidiaries IP Capital and Parkwalk Advisors), networks, recruitment and business support. IP Group has a strong track record of success and its portfolio comprises holdings in early-stage to mature businesses across life sciences and technology. IP Group is listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange under the code IPO.

Group holdings in portfolio companies reflect the undiluted beneficial equity interest excluding debt, unless otherwise explicitly stated.

For more information, please visit our website at www.ipgroupplc.com.

About ieso

ieso is the UK's leading digital mental healthcare and therapeutics business. It is addressing the global mental health crisis by developing clinically evidenced assessment and treatment products that enable everyone with a common mental health condition to recover.

ieso uses technology and data science to better understand, prevent, detect, and treat mental health conditions. Its core product offers AI-powered, therapist-delivered, digital cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). With a growing network of 600 fully qualified therapists, ieso serves more than 20 million adults through the UK National Health Service (NHS).

By analysing over 500 million data points contained in the world's largest outcome-linked mental health dataset, ieso's AI and data research teams are decoding the active components of therapy and enabling ground-breaking approaches for digital therapeutics (DTx). They have already created AI tools that review therapy sessions to highlight suboptimal treatment and drive improved patient recovery outcomes.

ieso is developing new digital therapeutic products that will support the transformation needed in mental healthcare. The work spans automated mental health assessment products and new digital therapeutic solutions, therapy companion apps, and drug adherence trials. The short-term ambition is to bring a rolling pipeline of regulatory-approved autonomous digital assessment and treatment products to the UK and US markets.

For more information, visit www.iesogroup.com and connect with us on Twitter @IesoHealth and LinkedIn.

ENDS