The Ontario Municipal Employees’ Retirement System is reinvesting in a U.K.-based online mental health-care company.
The OMERS participated in a funding round that raised £20 million (about $33 million) for HelloSelf, which connects patients with psychologists and therapists through an online platform. In 2021, the OMERS invested £5.5 million (about $9.1 million) and served as the lead investor during HelloSelf’s first funding round.
The company, which was founded in 2018, uses artificial intelligence technology and works with 160 mental-health professionals. The AI systems are also used to automatically make notes and set reminders for patient and clinicians.
In other news, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is buying a minority stake in a base metal and industrial mineral royalty company.
The pension fund will receive a 25 per cent stake in Sweetwater Royalties from Orion Resource Partners for $221.6 million. Sweetwater, established by Orion in 2020, owns more than 1.5 million hectares of mineral rich land in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, as well as 180,000 hectares in Michigan. It receives royalties from soda ash and industrial minerals.
In a press release, the Ontario Teachers’ said it will work with the company to help foster its growth. “Sweetwater has a unique mineral acreage position across the largest natural trona deposit globally and significant growth optionality across its asset base,” said Christopher Metrakos, the pension fund’s senior managing director of natural resources, in the release.