For a child waiting for mental health support, the gap between a crisis and a clinical appointment can feel like an eternity. It’s a gap that Dr Mark Cox, an NHS A&E senior house officer, saw repeatedly from the frontline. He co-founded Orli Health in 2022 with a simple, humane premise: what if you could meet children where they are, long before a formal diagnosis, and give them tools to build resilience through the one language they universally understand, play [PERPLEXITY SONAR PRO BRIEF].
The company’s digital platform, designed for children roughly aged 6 to 12, uses avatar-based storytelling and behavioural mini-games to help users recognise and regulate emotions. While the child engages with a playful digital companion, the system provides supporting insights to the adults in their orbit,parents, teachers, or healthcare professionals [PERPLEXITY SONAR PRO BRIEF]. It’s a bet on early, preventative intervention, delivered not as a clinical worksheet but as a connected system spanning home, school, and the healthcare setting.
The clinical wedge of play
Orli’s initial wedge is behavioural science disguised as a game. The product, which the company calls a “digital multivitamin for children’s mental health,” is built around 10-minute guided-play sessions that require no preparation from already-stretched teachers [orli.health]. The goal is to help build belonging and readiness to learn in classroom settings, while also creating a fun pathway for children to develop emotional literacy. For founder Cox, the model is a direct response to the bottlenecks of traditional care pathways. “I founded Orli after seeing children and young people struggle while waiting for support after encounters in acute care,” he has said [PERPLEXITY SONAR PRO BRIEF]. The platform does not aim to replace therapists but to act as a scalable, upstream layer of support that can ease anxiety and signpost users to trusted help when needed.
Pilots, partners, and early funding
The company’s early traction is measured in pilot programmes and partnership agreements, a common and prudent path for a tool navigating the sensitive landscape of child wellbeing. By July 2025, Orli reported it was testing its MVP with more than 100 families and running school-based workshops [TechRound, July 2025]. It has also secured pilots with NHS bodies, including the North East Integrated Care Board and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, and is working with multi-academy trusts [TechRound, July 2025]. The team’s background lends credibility to this outreach. Cox brings the acute-care perspective, while co-founder Euan Bell contributes experience as an assistant psychologist across social care, children’s homes, and education settings [PERPLEXITY SONAR PRO BRIEF].
Financing has come from mission-aligned early backers. The company secured a £60,000 investment from Bethnal Green Ventures’ Tech for Good programme by May 2025 and has won funding from Innovate UK [TechInformed, May 2025]. Total public and private funding reportedly surpassed £110,000 by mid-2025 [TechRound, July 2025]. This capital is being used to develop AI-powered features and expand pilot programmes. The company’s approach was further validated in August 2026 when it won a Paediatric HealthTech Sprint, earning £3,000 of in-kind support to develop Orli as a physical-digital emotional companion for healthcare settings [Health Tech World, August 2026].
| Co-Founder | Role | Key Background |
|---|---|---|
| Dr Mark Cox | CEO | NHS A&E senior house officer; founded Orli after witnessing care delays in acute settings [PERPLEXITY SONAR PRO BRIEF]. |
| Euan Bell | Co-Founder | Assistant psychologist with experience in social care, children’s homes, and education [PERPLEXITY SONAR PRO BRIEF]. |
The path to evidence and scale
The ambition is clear, but for any digital health intervention targeting children, the path to scale is paved with necessary caution. Orli operates in a space where regulatory scrutiny, though not as formal as for a drug, is intense regarding safety and efficacy claims. The company’s next phase will hinge on generating robust, peer-reviewed data that demonstrates tangible improvements in emotional outcomes, not just engagement metrics. Furthermore, the business model,B2B2C, targeting schools, local authorities, and the NHS,requires navigating complex procurement cycles and proving cost-effectiveness against a backdrop of strained public budgets.
- Clinical validation. The strongest growth lever will be published evidence. Without studies showing improved resilience or reduced anxiety scores, adoption beyond pilot projects will be challenging.
- Go-to-market complexity. Selling into the NHS and school systems is a marathon, not a sprint. Success depends on aligning with existing frameworks and proving the tool reduces, not increases, workload for staff.
- Data privacy. Handling sensitive data for a vulnerable population demands impeccable security and transparent consent mechanisms, a non-negotiable foundation for trust.
The company is focusing on emotional and behavioural support for children aged 6 to 12, a population where early intervention can alter developmental trajectories. The standard of care today for many of these children is often a fraught waiting game. Access to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in the UK is frequently constrained by long waitlists, leaving families and schools to manage as best they can with limited resources. Orli’s bet is that a low-friction, playful layer of digital support can provide a stopgap and a building block, creating a foundation of emotional skills while the system works to catch up. It’s a humane response to a systemic problem, one avatar at a time.
Sources
- [PERPLEXITY SONAR PRO BRIEF] Company, product, and team details
- [orli.health] Product description and use case
- [TechInformed, May 2025] A coffee with… Mark Cox, Co-founder and CEO, Orli | https://techinformed.com/a-coffee-with-mark-cox-co-founder-and-ceo-orli/
- [TechRound, July 2025] Orli Health profile | https://techround.co.uk/competitions/6-orli-health/
- [Health Tech World, August 2026] Two child health innovations recognised at Paediatric HealthTech Sprint | https://htworld.co.uk/news/events-news/two-child-health-innovations-recognised-at-paediatric-healthtech-sprint-jp26/