Thrive Global Acquires Boundless Mind, Neuroscience-based Artificial Intelligence Company to Power Health and Productivity Behavior Change
With acquisition of Boundless, the leader in behavior change AI, Thrive advances its core mission to help individuals and corporations unlock human potential and shape technology for good
Thrive also announces new funding round led by JAZZ Venture Partners, venture capital firm focused on human performance technology
Thrive Global, the leading behavior change technology company founded by Arianna Huffington in November 2016, announced today the acquisition of Boundless Mind, the neuroscience-based artificial intelligence company and leader in behavioral design and engineering. The acquisition furthers Thrive Global’s commitment to building the leading behavior change technology platform that leverages data collection and the application of the latest science to end the stress and burnout epidemic and help individuals and organizations unlock their full potential.
Since its launch in 2016, Thrive Global has worked with some of the top employers and brands in the world – including Accenture, JPMorgan, Hilton, Bank of America and Procter & Gamble – to bring behavior change technology, content and people experience programs to employees and consumers to improve their well-being and performance. Earlier this month, Thrive announced a partnership with Stanford Medicine that combines Stanford’s research with Thrive’s behavior change expertise into a digital enterprise program designed to help companies unlock better mental health. Stanford researchers have also lent their expertise to a program to help parents navigate their journey with less stress and more joy.
Boundless Mind’s innovative technology fuses neuroscience and artificial intelligence to optimize, personalize and target recommendations to users to inspire positive behavior change. Boundless’s technology learns to predict – for every unique user – when and how to deliver technology-driven rewards to fuel healthy habit-formation. By integrating Boundless into Thrive’s behavior change technology platform, Thrive will be able to make meaningful behavior change more achievable and more sustainable for Thrive platform users.
The Boundless team will integrate immediately into Thrive Global’s product and engineering team and be based between Thrive Global’s San Francisco and Los Angeles offices.
“This acquisition is an exciting milestone for Thrive Global,” said Arianna Huffington, Founder and CEO of Thrive Global. “Since our founding in 2016, we have been committed to cracking the code on behavior change to help individuals and organizations end the stress and burnout epidemic and unlock their full potential. And it’s more important than ever that we leverage the latest technology to help people build healthy habits. Boundless Mind shares our mission to create a world where everyone can thrive At a time when preventable, lifestyle-related diseases account for 75% of healthcare costs and mental health problems are escalating, the only way to change health outcomes is to shift human behavior. The Boundless acquisition is a critical next step in scaling Thrive’s behavior change platform to millions of users around the world.”
“Thrive Global is the perfect place for us to build on everything we’ve achieved at Boundless and accelerate the next generation of technology to power healthy behavior change,” said Dalton Combs, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Boundless Mind. “At Boundless our mission has been to create a world where hyper-personalized technology supports human thriving. Arianna and Thrive Global have discovered what everyone in wellness tech has been hunting for: a scalable business model. Without a doubt, Thrive Global is the company best positioned to win the future of enterprise wellbeing. It has global reach and incredible access to the market; And we’re so excited to be accelerating Thrive’s growth, powering its platform with AI and data-driven behavior change.”
Boundless Mind, formerly known as Dopamine Labs, has been profiled on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” and ABC News’s “ScreenTime: Diane Sawyer Reporting” as well as in TIME magazine. Its technology platform exists at the intersection of mind and machine, using a rigorous understanding of the human brain to design AI-personalized, real-time UX interventions that improve user behavior and drive results, allowing teams to build smarter products that more efficiently and positively change human behavior. The technology has been used effectively to improve outcomes for products in categories spanning health, fitness, productivity, finance and e-commerce – including a 60% increase in walking, 30% increase in productivity and 21% increase in engagement around diet and exercise.
“This is a tremendous opportunity to distribute the groundbreaking technology that we’ve built at Boundless to Thrive’s global customer base. We couldn’t be happier to join Arianna and her team in accelerating human thriving,” said Matt Mayberry, COO at Boundless Mind.
“The Product Development team at Boundless is thrilled with the opportunity to scale and evolve the world’s most powerful behavior change technology platform at Thrive Global,” added Jake Dodd, Boundless Mind’s CTO.
“We’re thrilled to see the continued growth and market expansion at Thrive Global” said Somesh Dash, General Partner at IVP and member of Thrive Global’s Board of Directors. “The combination of Thrive’s mission and Boundless Mind’s technology is truly remarkable and the integration will help Thrive scale a game-changing and differentiated behavior change technology platform to enterprises around the world.”
Through the acquisition, Boundless investors including Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund and Esther Dyson will join Thrive Global’s cap table. Thrive recently closed a round of funding led by its latest strategic investor, JAZZ Venture Partners, a San Francisco-based venture capital fund investing in companies extending the boundaries of human performance. Thrive Global’s current investors – including IVP, Marc Benioff, Ray Dalio, and Kevin Durant – exercised their pro-rata rights in the round; investor Daniel Loeb and Expanse CEO Tim Junio also joined the round, which brings Thrive’s total amount raised to date to over $65 million.
“We found a true kindred spirit in Thrive and their mission to unlock human performance by helping individuals reduce stress and increase well-being,” said JAZZ Managing Partner, Andrew Firlik, who joined Thrive Global’s Board. “Their proven track record in the enterprise and ambitious vision for the future gave us tremendous confidence in Thrive’s future, which we look forward to accelerating with support from the JAZZ team.”
For more information, read Arianna Huffington’s post “Why Thrive Global Is Acquiring Boundless Mind” on Thrive Global here: https://thriveglobal.
