Dublin-based technology company SilverCloud Health has secured €1.5 million in funding to expand in EU and US markets and accelerate its entry into the Middle East and Asia.

The company has developed an online health and e-therapy platform to enable healthcare organisations to deliver engaging healthcare programmes to patients.

Clinical user trials have shown that the platform delivers a threefold increase in client engagement rates and a corresponding decrease in client drop-out rates when compared with other computer-based treatment programmes.

SilverCloud chief executive and co-founder Ken Cahill said the company has ambitions to tap into the demand of the rapidly growing behavioural healthcare market, which in the US alone is estimated to be worth $375 billion.

“Targeting insurance providers, employee assistance providers, healthcare organisations and pharmaceutical companies, we want to take advantage of a gap in the market in terms of product and service offering and believe our interactive, supportive and social platform will cater for the needs of a growing mental and chronic/long-term illness care population,” Mr Cahill said.

The €1.5 million investment is being led by the Ulster Bank Diageo Venture Fund, managed by Investec Ventures, with co-investment from the AIB Seed Capital Fund, managed by Dublin Business Innovation Centre, and Enterprise Ireland.

Following the investment, Leo Hamill of Investec will join SilverCloud’s board.

A spin-out from a collaborative project between the National Digital Research Centre, Parents Plus – Mater University Hospital and Trinity College Dublin, SilverCloud was established in 2012 following more than 10 years of advanced clinical and academic research.

The company counts St Patrick’s hospital in Ireland, the NHS, Mental Health America, Teeside University in the UK, Aspire Indiana in the US and Bodywhys in Ireland among its customers.