LifeSpeak to acquire Wellbeats for up to $92.5m

LifeSpeak, which went public last year, has agreed to acquire Wellbeats, a Minneapolis-based on-demand, software-as-a-service physical well-being platform. The deal, expected to close in March, reflects a purchase price of up to $92.5 million. It will be supported by a C$97.5 million credit facility from Scotiabank and a C$22 million private placement led by Beedie Capital. Toronto-based LifeSpeak is a provider of digital mental health and well-being education software.

PRESS RELEASE

TORONTO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–LifeSpeak Inc. (“LifeSpeak” or the “Company”) (TSX: LSPK), the leading mental health and total wellbeing platform for employers, health plans, and insurance companies, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire U.S.-based Wellbeats Inc. (“Wellbeats”) for up to US$92.5 million. Wellbeats, a Minnesota-based market-leading provider of an on-demand, software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) physical wellbeing platform, serves a diverse client base of 400+ U.S. and international enterprise clients. With a combined 30 years of experience as respective leaders in digital health education and physical wellbeing, the acquisition supercharges LifeSpeak’s ability to meet rapidly growing demand from organizations for a comprehensive, single-vendor solution to meet mental and physical health support needs.

Effective corporate wellness solutions are in high demand, driven by increasing expectations from employers to provide total wellbeing support to employees and the rapidly changing nature of the work environment. According to Global Wellness Institute, corporate wellness is expected to reach a total addressable market of US$58.4 billion by 2025. A comprehensive suite of wellbeing solutions is paramount for organizations seeking to support their employees’ mental health and physical wellbeing. Solutions supporting the inextricable link between mental health and physical wellbeing, effectively address employee total wellbeing and may serve to improve employee productivity, engagement, and retention.

“The acquisition of Wellbeats significantly expands and diversifies the SaaS-based behavioral health and physical wellbeing solutions LifeSpeak can offer its customers and partners. Wellbeats brings an exceptional on-demand wellbeing platform to millions of users worldwide and provides us with additional growth opportunities via channel partners,” said Michael Held, CEO, LifeSpeak. “Many organizations have expressed a strong desire to streamline their wellbeing support to a smaller number of proven brands focusing on longer-term, preventive solutions. This makes the addition of Wellbeats highly complementary to LifeSpeak’s growing lineup of digital health offerings and allows us to further extend our offering to new enterprise and embedded solutions clients. Through this acquisition, we are excited to have the opportunity to cross-sell this extraordinary physical wellbeing platform around the world, as well as increase the prevalence of our industry-leading mental health and total wellbeing education platform.”

The transaction demonstrates continued disciplined execution of LifeSpeak’s strategy in several key areas and is well aligned with LifeSpeak’s core acquisition criteria, including acquiring assets with:

A best-in-class and complementary B2B SaaS-based product offering: Wellbeats’ award-winning solution represents a strategic extension and enhancement of LifeSpeak’s digital, B2B-focused wellbeing platform and enables LifeSpeak to further address the critical needs of its client base with additional on-demand access to large and scalable physical wellbeing, health, and nutrition virtual resources.

A large, sticky, and non-overlapping enterprise client base with a diverse geographic presence: Wellbeats will significantly increase LifeSpeak’s client count with the addition of 400+ net new global enterprise clients, bringing total LifeSpeak clients to 800+. Substantial cross-sell opportunities within LifeSpeak’s existing and net new client base, as well as additional paths to market, including new channel partners, augment LifeSpeak’s sales strategy while enhancing revenue opportunities across the client portfolio.

A strong team with complementary skillsets and long-term strategic alignment: The Wellbeats team joins LifeSpeak with decades of experience and long-term strategic alignment in its core mission. Wellbeats’ international experience and presence accelerates LifeSpeak’s global growth efforts through the addition of strong senior management and an experienced U.S. salesforce. LifeSpeak is pleased to announce that upon the completion of the transaction, Jason Von Bank, President & CEO of Wellbeats, will assume the role of Chief Operating Officer of LifeSpeak.

A similar financial profile: Wellbeats maintains comparable fundamental financial metrics to LifeSpeak and is expected to accelerate LifeSpeak’s overall growth strategy and enhance financial performance into 2022 and beyond.

“By joining LifeSpeak, we are advancing on our mission to provide all people the opportunity to live a healthier life, regardless of age, interest or ability. We’ve also delivered on bringing the two halves of the wellbeing equation together for our customers, who have sought mental health solutions to complement our physical wellbeing resources,” said Jason Von Bank, President & CEO, Wellbeats. “Both Wellbeats and LifeSpeak are category leaders with impressive global partners and clients, and this partnership will accelerate our combined growth dramatically. We are excited to be part of the LifeSpeak family and look forward to continuing to deliver on our mission for our clients, their employees, and shareholders.”