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https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/KOO/admission-to-aim-and-first-day-of-dealings/14672174

Kooth, a leading provider of online mental health services, is pleased to announce the admission of its entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital to trading on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange. Dealings in the ordinary shares of the Company will commence today at 8.00am, under the ticker “KOO” and the ISIN “GB00BMCZLK30”. The Company’s admission document is available to view on its Investor Relations website at koothplc.com.

The Company has successfully raised £16 million through a placing of 8,000,000 ordinary shares at a placing price of 200 pence per ordinary share (the “Placing Price”). In addition, 5,000,000 existing ordinary shares have been placed on behalf of Root Capital Fund II L.P, at the Placing Price, raising gross proceeds of £10 million. Kooth’s market capitalisation at the Placing Price on admission will be £66.1 million. Panmure Gordon is acting as Nominated Adviser and sole Broker to the Company.

Kooth is the UK’s largest digital mental health provider to the NHS for children and young people aged 10-25, offering digital mental health services and a broad range of therapeutic tools and interventions to the health service. It also provides these services to businesses and charities. The Company intends to use the new funds to support its growth plans, which include investing in its platform and service offering and expanding within strategic markets.

For the purposes of the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules, the total number of ordinary shares with voting rights in the Company with effect from 2 September 2020 will be 33,055,776. This figure may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change of their interest in, the Company under the FCA’s Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules.

Tim Barker, Chief Executive Officer of Kooth, commented:

“This is a great moment for Kooth. In joining AIM we see a significant opportunity to scale up our company to support the growing demand for mental health services in both the UK and internationally. As a public company with a positive social impact, we are proud to become the first digital mental health platform to list on the London Stock Exchange. We have an ambitious plan to invest in our team and technology to deliver on our purpose to make personalised mental healthcare available to all.

“I’m grateful to our team that works every day to support 5.4 million people across the UK who have access to Kooth. I’d like to thank our new shareholders, with whose backing we can continue to invest in expanding our service to meet ever growing demands.”

Kooth highlights

·    Mental health online platform, offering digital mental health services to the NHS and businesses.

·    Provides a safe, anonymous and accredited online service that aims to facilitate and develop conversations about mental wellbeing nationwide.

·   Provides a broad range of therapeutic tools and interventions, putting choice and control in the hands of individuals to decide what works best for them. Focused on outcomes for the individual, Kooth’s online platform provides:

o Self-help tools and content: self-help activities to support individuals across a range of areas, from managing anxiety to expressing their feelings, together with a wealth of articles and advisory pieces created by the Kooth community and Kooth’s clinical content team.

o Community for Peer-to-Peer Support: online moderated forums covering a range of topics, where users can post and get support from others in the Kooth community.

o Professional Counselling: anonymous, online text-chat based professional counselling, where individuals can get ad-hoc or ongoing support. Kooth’s practitioners provide over 12,000 hours of counselling every month.

·   As at June 2020, Kooth employed 298 people, 109 of which are professional counsellors who live across the United Kingdom. At a minimum, counsellors are BACP registered (or equivalent) with 450 hours’ post qualification experience. The Company has a 24 person-strong technology, product and engineering team based in London that designs, builds, and optimises the Kooth technology platform, and a six person data science and research team.

Growth opportunities

·    The Company’s goal is to use digital technology to make mental health services accessible to all, spanning prevention, early intervention and ongoing care.

·   Kooth believes that given the growing need for mental health support and the benefits of a digital-first approach, there is a potential addressable market in the UK of over £500 million in providing its services to businesses and the NHS.

·    Through artificial intelligence processes, the Company aims to provide a personalised experience for users of the service. This personalisation aims to ensure that that the user is provided with the service or content deemed most suitable for them.

·  The Company intends to continue to grow Kooth for children and young people by working with stakeholders to raise awareness, service demand, and expand existing contracts with commissioners. In addition, as commissioners invest to improve services to support the transition from paediatric to adult services, Kooth’s service can provide support for 18-25 year olds.

·   There is the potential for future growth in the UK in both the public and private sector. In addition to expanding into regions that do not yet contract Kooth to support children and young people, Kooth recently launched its service for Adults which it sells to both the NHS and businesses.

·    The Group also intends as part of its expansion strategy to look at new markets, including the US.