Teaming up to support workplace mental health

We're teaming up with Mentemia and Sir John Kirwan by investing in the workplace wellbeing platform he co-founded in 2019 with serial tech entrepreneur Adam Clark.

The digital mental wellbeing platform helps employers embed a wellbeing-first culture across their organisation, their leaders and their people. This is the second investment for ACC’s $50 million Impact Fund, which was launched last year with the twin aims of improving the health, safety, and wellbeing of New Zealanders and providing a commercial investment return that helps keep levies low.

Mentemia has become the NZ market leader in digital mental wellbeing since launching in 2020, with leading companies like Fletcher Building, Chorus and Kiwibank among their client base. Along with specially designed events and programs for leaders, Mentemia provides a practical way for employees to build mental health literacy and improve their wellbeing in a private, secure and personalised way.

Working towards a mentally well workforce

“It’s outstanding to have the support of ACC,” Sir John says. “If we bake mental wellbeing into the day to day workplace, it’s simple - organisations will operate better, leaders will lead better, and individuals in the team will live and work better. I strongly believe that if we do a great job of this, we will see a reduction in accidents and injuries along with the other personal, organisational and societal benefits of a mentally well workforce.”

Mental health is the primary cause of lost working days and productivity loss in most Westernised countries and supporting good mental health has benefits to businesses and workers alike. In 2019/20, ACC paid $65.5m for active work-related mental injury costs and $312m for mental injuries as a result of physical injuries in 2019/20.

Studies show mental health accounts for a loss of 5% of GDP in OECD countries and is a significant cause of suicide and disability worldwide. Mental health conditions, particularly depression, are a significant risk factor for higher rates of injury, slower rates of recovery and increased ACC claims costs.

“Improving mental health and wellbeing can help bring down injury rates, speed recovery and reduce the cost in ACC claims,” says Impact Fund advisor George Adams. “We encourage more companies to recognise the benefits of supporting the wellbeing of their workers including better productivity and less time lost to injuries.”

The other new investor in Mentemia is ethical fund manager Pathfinder KiwiSaver Plan. Pathfinder and ACC join existing investors including Sir John, CEO Adam Clark, Icehouse Ventures and Sir Stephen Tindall’s K One W One. 

Supporting workers across all industries

The Mentamia platform is a great way to support the wellbeing of workers across all industries and ACC is encouraged to see building companies among early adopters, Adams says. “We know the building boom has put this sector under even more pressure – it has the highest injury claim rate of any industry and one of the highest fatality rates.”

The investment in Mentemia follows the announcement of ACC’s partnership with Construction Health and Safety New Zealand (CHASNZ), an industry-backed charitable trust dedicated to improving health and safety in the construction industry.

Mentemia is an attractive investment opportunity for ACC because it has a high-quality team with a strong profile in the NZ market and a compelling growth strategy globally, ACC’s Adams says. “This investment was a perfect fit with ACC’s purpose to improve the wellbeing of New Zealanders, and there is significant market opportunity in employee health and wellness that is undergoing positive disruption due to technology solutions.”

Details of ACC’s investment aren’t being made public, but it sits within the $2 million-to-$15 million range that the Impact Fund targets.

"The investment is another positive step in helping us reach our goal of improving the mental wellbeing of 100 million people and saving 100,000 lives,” says Mentemia CEO Clark. “We plan to significantly increase the size of our product and engineering team and will be making increased investments into sales and marketing to further accelerate Mentemia’s growth globally and in New Zealand.”

Mentemia adds to ACC’s investments that improve the wellbeing of New Zealanders, including the Impact Fund’s debut investment in Robotics Plus, which improves safety for logging workers, our partnership with rural wellbeing champions Farm strong.

ACC’s Private Markets team welcomes interest from companies, organisations and funds seeking investment in proposals that improve health, safety and wellbeing.