Oliva

Oliva is a workplace mental health and professional development platform sold to employers. It combines one-to-one therapy, individual and group coaching, workshops and classes, self-guided content and dedicated manager support in a single subscription with flexible session allocation and no minimum commitments. Employees can access support for personal issues such as anxiety, burnout, depression, bereavement and life events, as well as professional challenges such as receiving feedback, first-time management, inconsistent performance reviews and low team trust after layoffs.

For employer-side buyers, Oliva securely aggregates anonymised data from therapy, coaching and team sessions rather than relying on surveys, and turns it into insights on recurring challenges and skill gaps across regions, teams and individuals, alongside recommended action plans. Care delivery is organised around an in-house "Oliva Care Model" developed under Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Sarah Bateup, a cognitive behavioural therapist who previously worked on digital mental health delivery in the NHS; the model routes users to a tailored package of human-led intervention that adapts based on outcomes. The platform offers more than 12 types of therapy, integrates with Slack, and provides employees an encrypted personal portal in which they are matched with a care provider and can track progress.

Founding story

Oliva was founded in 2020 by Javier Suarez, previously co-founder of TravelPerk, and Sançar Sahin, previously VP Marketing at Hotjar and Chief Marketing Officer at Typeform. Both had experienced mental health difficulties and burnout while leading teams at high-growth technology companies and struggled to find appropriate support, which led them to build a platform combining individual clinical care with organisational partnership, insights and guidance for employers.

Business model

Oliva sells a business-to-business subscription platform to employers, who fund therapy, coaching and workshop access for their employees and managers. Plans are described as flexible with no minimum commitments and 100% flexible session allocation, allowing customers to direct sessions to the regions, teams or individuals that need them most, with Oliva helping build an action plan matched to a company's challenges and budget. It is also offered as a global benefit to workers employed through the employer-of-record provider Remote.

Revenue comes from employers purchasing platform access and session capacity for their workforces rather than from individual consumers; the company reported over 30% month-on-month revenue growth from the start of 2021 and over 300% year-on-year revenue growth as of mid-2023.

Traction

Reported traction includes revenue growth of more than 30% month-on-month from early 2021 and over 300% year-on-year as of mid-2023, a therapist network expanding from 50 to more than 250, use in over 27 countries across 14 languages, and thousands of employees supported since launch. Customer-reported outcomes cited by the company include a 37% engagement increase at Scopely versus a previous wellbeing platform, a 93% reduction in mental health sick leave at Bonnet, and therapy provision for 110 homelessness case workers at Beam.

Latest developments

The company now markets itself as a therapy and professional coaching platform aimed at team performance, adding individual and group coaching, manager coaching and HR-facing insight and action planning to its therapy offering, and serves as an official benefit partner for Remote. Following its 2023 financing it outlined plans to grow its therapist network, expand into new markets and languages, further develop the Oliva Care Model, launch a mobile app and use AI to support clinicians.