Virtually Free, a London-based tech start-up that specializes in mental health apps, has been selected to take part in the Wayra Accelerator Programme.

 

The programme - which is sponsored by Telefonica and supported by PayPal, Nokia and Microsoft - provides startup businesses with “technological tools, qualified mentors, a cutting edge working space and the financing required to accelerate their growth”.

 

Hundreds of businesses applied, but only 13 were selected to be part of the programme.

 

Virtually Free Co-Founder and CEO Andres Fonesca said: “Wayra is a great opportunity for us to develop our business model, to be able to reach more people through Telefonica's platform and it will help us acquire all the skills to scale the business globally.”

 

Virtually Free develops apps it hopes makes “cognitive behavioural therapy more appealing, more affordable and more accessible”. Its latest app, Phobia Free - available on Apple’s iPhone and iPad for £2.49 - exposes arachnophobia sufferers to increasingly realistic simulated spiders.

 

Mr Fonesca said: “Phobia Free is our 'proof of concept' app. It uses a version of exposure therapy that relies on virtual stimuli as opposed to real stimuli to help people overcome arachnophobia.

 

“We chose arachnophobia because treatment for it is not offered on the NHS, the evidence base for our treatment is robust and it helps us demonstrate what we can achieve on mobile technology.”

 

Mr Fonesca says Virtually Free plans to develop apps to “cover all areas of mental health where therapy has proven to be of value”. These areas include depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

 

Virtually Free was founded in 2013 by doctors Andres Fonesca and Russell Green, and game developer Richard Flower. Mr Fonesca said: “Mental health problems are very common and can be very disabling. Access to treatment is very limited. A lot of people don't even seek help. Our ultimate aim is to improve the world's mental and emotional wellbeing.”