Teladoc Health bought the virtual mental health startup UpLift this week in a bid to rescue its struggling direct-to-consumer therapy business.
The telemedicine firm acquired Union Square-based UpLift for $30 million, offering an additional $15 million if the company meets certain targets, it announced Wednesday. The deal aims to boost Teladoc’s virtual therapy business run by BetterHelp, which has suffered declining revenue and a dropoff in customers within the last year.
The acquisition aims to boost BetterHelp’s business by allowing patients to use insurance to pay for teletherapy sessions, a shift from the company’s previous cash-pay model. UpLift, which earned $15 million in revenue last year, works with health plans including Aetna, Cigna and UnitedHealth that cover more than 100 million people in the U.S., representing a new pool of potential patients for BetterHelp.
BetterHelp has dragged down Teladoc’s finances in recent years. The Purchase-based company recorded a $1 billion net loss in 2024, largely because of a $790 million goodwill impairment charge to BetterHelp to account for its worsening value.
The teletherapy firm’s revenues continued to decline in the first quarter, dropping 11% year-over-year to roughly $240 million, according to a first-quarter earnings presentation made by Teladoc on Wednesday.
Chuck Divita, CEO of Teladoc, said in a statement Wednesday that the company is excited about the UpLift acquisition, which will improve BetterHelp’s ability to support patients seeking to use their health coverage for virtual mental health services.
The UpLift deal marks the second acquisition made by Teladoc this year, which announced plans to buy Dallas, Texas-based company Catapult Health for $65 million in February. The buying spree comes after Teladoc’s rocky finances led it to lay off hundreds of employees in the past two years, and prompted longtime ex-CEO Jason Gorevic to step down last April.
