KUALA LUMPUR (March 15): IHH Healthcare Bhd has made a strategic investment in Singapore's digital mental health company Intellect at an undisclosed price, aiming to further expand the hospital operator’s offerings to its customers.

As a strategic investor, IHH will co-develop and customise digital mental health programmes with Intellect for its patients, corporate clients, and staff, according to a joint statement on Wednesday (March 15).

In a pilot initiative, Intellect’s offerings will be made available first to maternity patients at Gleneagles Hospital in Singapore. 

There are also plans to extend Intellect’s solution to corporate clients of IHH Singapore’s iXchange and to IHH employees.

Intellect was founded in 2019, and has accumulated three million subscribers using its platform across 20 countries, including Malaysia, Singapore, India and Hong Kong. 

Intellect offers end-to-end mental health services, including telehealth coaching, clinical therapy, psychiatry, self-guided cognitive behavioural therapy-based programmes, urgent distress support, and mental health screening, all done either virtually via the Intellect platform or in-person at an Intellect clinic.

“Mental and physical health are equally important components of total well-being. Mental health issues affect one in every four persons. We are pleased to invest in Intellect, a market leader in this rapidly growing category, to boost their growth and enhance access to millions more people who require support, care or treatment,” said IHH group chief strategy and business development officer Ashok Pandit.

Intellect co-founder and chief executive officer Theodoric Chew said this partnership enables the management to scale up mental healthcare offerings through IHH’s global healthcare network.

“We are truly excited to be partnering with IHH to form what we believe will be a game-changer alliance to effectively transform mental healthcare across Asia,” he said.

Prior to this strategic investment, Intellect raised a US$20 million (RM89.45 million) Series A funding round last year, backed by investors like Tiger Global, Y Combinator, Insignia Ventures, HOF Capital, MS&AD Ventures, Singtel Innov8, K3 Ventures and East Ventures.

Shares in IHH Healthcare were trading unchanged at RM5.89 as at 11.47am, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM51.87 billion.