Firm pledges to raise millions for kids' mental health

Zumos, based in Portsmouth, is an online service providing first step mental health and wellbeing support.

The business has began raising £5m through crowdfunding, as it plans to bring a children’s mental health platform to all UK schools free of charge.

The plan is for all children to have access to the firm’s computer-based wellbeing and resilience-building platform.

The anonymous system offers children a safe place to look for advice on a range of topics including phobias, coping with exam stress and bullying.

There are also games, books and positive recordings with ‘How to be Happy’ messages that can be played aloud.

The team at Zumos will collect this data to get an insight into the current state of mental health in schools.

Chief executive Gary Siva said: ‘There is a serious and growing child and adolescent mental health crisis in our country, in fact globally.

‘Having spent over 10 years developing a disruptor that can positively and measurably impact, and self-empower millions of children, I feel a personal obligation to make it available free of charge.

‘We can use the outcome data to inform and streamline our governmental spending to meet the real needs of our children.

‘The crowdfunding initiative enables us to deliver Zumos to every child and support every school right now and build new revenue streams that will make our investors very happy.’