Starling Minds

What Starling Minds does

Starling Minds is a Vancouver, British Columbia-based digital mental health company founded in 2013 that builds a B2B platform delivering personalized, evidence-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to working populations. The platform is anchored by two core solutions: Starling Mental Fitness, an early-intervention program for at-work employees dealing with stress, anxiety, and depression; and Starling Return-to-Health (with Physical and Mental variants), a return-to-work program for employees on disability leave. Both are powered by an expert system that emulates human-guided therapy processes to personalize sessions, exercises, and tools based on member assessment results. The platform operationalizes a Stepped Care 2.0 model with seven-plus levels of intervention and includes adjunct features such as a Mental Fitness Toolbox, peer community forums, video library, live webinars, leadership training, and a COVID-19-specific program.

The business model is B2B2C enterprise SaaS, with organizations (employers, unions, professional associations, healthcare authorities, workers' compensation boards, and disability management firms) licensing the platform on a per-employee/per-member subscription basis; covered individuals access the service at no direct cost. Pricing is quote-based and tiered by organization size, with multi-year contracts. Distribution combines direct enterprise sales with channel partnerships, most notably the 2014 BCTF anchor partnership covering 41,000+ educators, alongside later healthcare wins such as Fraser Health Authority and public-sector bodies including WorkSafeBC and WCB. The StarlingHQ customer portal gives disability managers referral, progress reporting, and aggregated engagement dashboards.

Starling reports access to over 420,000 employees across North America (Canada and the United States) with a 200% member-base increase attributed to expansion in education, healthcare, and insurance verticals. The company is privately held under Starling Minds Inc. (British Columbia), with disclosed leadership comprising CEO Peter Oxley and Chief Science Officer Dr. Andrew Miki (clinical psychologist). Capital sources include the Genome BC Industry Innovation (I²) Fund, the Digital Technology Supercluster ($2.5M CAD project), the Federal Government, WUTIF, E-Fund, and Creative Destruction Lab.

Name

Starling Minds

Legal name

Starling Minds Inc.

Website

https://starlingminds.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Starling Minds is a Vancouver-based B2B digital mental health platform that delivers personalized Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to employees via employer, union, healthcare authority, and disability management sponsorships across North America.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Digital Mental Health Platform

NAICS

Offices of Physicians, Mental Health Specialists (621112)

SIC

Services-Health Services (8000)

akta.pro primary industry

Behavioral & Mental Health Virtual Care (EAP/Teletherapy) (HLALADAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Behavioral Health & Neurocognitive Therapeutics (Digital) (HLACANAI), General Mental Health Therapy Platforms (Talk Therapy) (HLALAEAA)

Keywords

• Digital mental health
• Cognitive behavioral therapy
• Employee wellness platform
• Disability management software
• Workplace mental fitness

Headquarters

HQ city

Vancouver

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Enterprise Subscription (B2B): Organizations (employers, unions, healthcare authorities, associations) pay for access to the Starling Minds digital mental health platform on behalf of their employees/members. The platform is licensed on a subscription basis; once the Starling Minds-Client contract expires, members may no longer use the Programs. Pricing is likely organization-size based with volume discounts for larger deployments.
2. Per-Employee/Member Licensing: The platform is provided to employees as a benefit sponsored by their employer or organization (Sponsoring Organization). Employers pay for employee access; employees access at no direct cost. This B2B2C model generates revenue per covered employee.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels12 records

Core offering

Starling Minds develops and operates a B2B digital mental health platform that delivers personalized, evidence-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to employees and members of sponsoring organizations such as employers, unions, healthcare authorities, and insurers. The platform offers the Mental Fitness early-intervention program, the Return-to-Health program (with Physical and Mental variants) for workers on disability leave, and the StarlingHQ customer portal for disability managers and clinicians, all powered by a proprietary expert system following a Stepped Care 2.0 model.

Product overview

Starling Minds is a digital mental health platform offering two core solutions: Mental Fitness and Return-to-Health. The Mental Fitness program provides early-intervention CBT for at-work employees struggling with stress, anxiety, and depression. The Return-to-Health program supports employees on disability leave in returning to work, available in Physical and Mental variants. Both programs are powered by an expert system that personalizes therapy delivery based on assessment results. The platform includes additional features such as a Mental Fitness Toolbox, Peer Community, Video Library, Leadership Training, and the StarlingHQ Portal for disability case managers. A specialized COVID-19 Mental Health Program was also developed to address pandemic-related stressors.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Starling Mental Fitness: An early-intervention Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) program that personalizes digital therapy to address stress, anxiety, and depression of healthcare and education workers.
• Starling Return-to-Health
• StarlingHQ

Products and services

• Starling Minds Mental Fitness

Quantifiable outcome

• 77% of users report reduction in stress, anxiety, and depression
• +12 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

AI capability4 records

Feature7 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.

• Fraser Health AuthoritycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 13 April 2021Canada's largest health authority partnered with Starling Minds for the Return-to-Health program. Executive Director Dave Keen stated that Starling's expertise in mental health impacts of absence and disability added to disability managers' ability to positively impact employees off work due to injury or illness. Achieved 10% reduction in absenteeism within 6 months.
• British Columbia Teachers' Federation (BCTF)flagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2014Long-standing partnership since 2014 where BCTF offers Starling Minds as a mental health benefit to 41,000+ public employees in British Columbia. BCTF negotiated with legislators for mental health resources and selected Starling as the digital solution to help educators build mental resilience. This is a flagship partnership demonstrating outcomes including 86% of teachers improving mental health.

Scale indicators14 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Spring Health: Spring Health is a leading employer-sponsored mental health platform offering self-guided digital CBT programs, live therapy, coaching and psychiatry to enterprise buyers. Like Starling Minds, it sells B2B to HR/benefits leaders and is measured on engagement and clinical outcomes, but operates at much larger scale across 100+ countries.
• Lyra Health: Lyra Health provides employer-sponsored mental health benefits combining live therapy, coaching and digital CBT modules to enterprise customers. It overlaps directly with Starling Minds on the B2B employer mental health category and competes for HR leader mindshare, though Lyra leans more on a hybrid live-therapist model.
• Modern Health: Modern Health is a global mental health platform for employers and insurers offering therapy, coaching, digital content and measurement-based care. It is a direct competitor to Starling Minds in selling digital + live mental health benefits to HR and benefits buyers, with similar emphasis on outcome metrics and Stepped Care-style triage.
• Headspace Health: Headspace Health (Headspace + Ginger) combines a consumer mindfulness app and on-demand therapy/coaching sold through B2B employer channels. It directly competes with Starling Minds for employer mental health benefits budgets and overlaps most heavily on mindfulness, meditation and digital self-care content, though it also offers live therapist matching.
• Calm Business: Calm Business sells employer-licensed access to the Calm meditation, sleep and mental wellness app as a workplace benefit. It competes with Starling Minds for the same employer mental health/benefits budget but is positioned more as mindfulness and sleep support, with less clinical CBT and disability-management orientation than Starling.
• Togetherall (formerly Big White Wall): Togetherall is an anonymous digital peer-support mental health community used by employers, health plans and universities, with embedded CBT-style resources and clinician moderation. It overlaps directly with Starling Minds' community + clinical content model and similarly sells to benefits/HR decision-makers, though Togetherall leans more heavily on community and less on structured CBT programs.
• Workplace Options: Workplace Options is a global EAP and workplace mental health provider offering counseling, digital tools and managed behavioral health services to employers worldwide. It directly competes with Starling Minds for EAP and employer-sponsored mental health contracts, particularly with employers seeking a combination of digital tools and human support.

Emerging players

• Wysa: Wysa is an AI-driven conversational mental health platform offering self-guided CBT-based support via an anonymous chatbot, sold B2B to employers, health plans and providers. It is comparable to Starling Minds on clinically validated, anonymized, self-directed digital CBT and on B2B2C employer distribution, but is earlier-stage and more chatbot-led.
• Meru Health: Meru Health is a digital mental health company offering clinician-supported, CBT and mindfulness-based programs sold to employers and health plans. It is comparable to Starling Minds as a smaller, evidence-based DTx provider focused on structured CBT programs for anxiety, depression and burnout distributed through employer and payer channels.

Broad incumbents

• LifeWorks (TELUS Health): LifeWorks (formerly Morneau Shepell), now part of TELUS Health, is a major Canadian employee assistance program (EAP), wellness and disability management provider offering digital and live mental health services to large employers. It is the closest established, large-scale domestic incumbent comparable to Starling Minds in the Canadian employer-sponsored mental health market, though LifeWorks offers a far broader benefits-administration portfolio.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/starlingminds
• Facebookfacebook.com/StarlingMinds
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/starling-minds
• Instagraminstagram.com/starlingminds/?hl=en

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds4 records

Investors6 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Starling Minds