Converge International acquires physical and mental digital health platform HeadUp Labs, funded by an investment from the Victorian Business Growth Fund (managed by Roc Partners)
Henslow is pleased to announce the successful acquisition of HeadUp Labs by Converge International. Henslow has acted as M&A advisor to Converge and concurrently as Lead Manager on an associated investment from the Victorian Business Growth Fund (managed by Roc Partners) to fund the acquisition and future growth. The acquisition of HeadUp is a strong fit with Converge’s digital product growth strategy and will create a fully integrated and holistic preventative workplace mental health, safety, wellbeing and engagement product.
Converge is Australia’s most established B2B workplace mental health and wellbeing service provider, enabling corporate and government organisations to provide their employees and employee’s families with the mental health and wellbeing support they need, reducing risk, improving employee resilience, and increasing workforce participation.
After more than 50 years of operation, Converge has established itself as a dedicated, values-driven provider of mental health and wellbeing services to Australia’s leading enterprises including large corporate and government organisations. Following the events of Covid-19, demand for mental health support in the workplace has never been more important and requires an increasing focus for organisations across Australia. Converge is uniquely placed to capture significant structural tailwinds such as the change in consumer awareness and acceptance, technology change and government policy which are driving demand for mental health and wellbeing services.
The HeadUp application is a complete physical and mental wellbeing platform designed to track physical and mental health risk factors. HeadUp, led by founders Glenn Riseley and David Parfitt, previously launched and operated Global Corporate Challenge which was sold to Virgin Pulse in 2016. Combined, the two founders have extensive experience spanning digital health engagement, data science and behavioral science with a proven track record of value creation. They will both become key contributors to the senior leadership team at Converge.
“From the commencement of the engagement with Henslow, we were delighted by the speed with which Henslow was able to grasp Converge’s vision and strategy, understand and provide advice on the “buy” vs “build” options and identify highly synergistic value-adding acquisition opportunities, the best sources of capital, and act on behalf of Converge to progressively finetune the approaches and support the buy-side and investor negotiations. At all times Henslow provided Converge with advice that was proactive, wise, and transparent. It has been a genuine partnership which we look forward to continuing with Henslow as we seek further M&A opportunities to support our growth” said Terry Winters, Chairman, Converge International.
The successful acquisition and capital raise provides a further example of Henslow’s capabilities to partner with growing mid-market companies and provide combined and complementary M&A and equity capital market services.
