Boston-based meQuilibrium, which has developed a mobile stress management program, raised $9 million in a funding round led by Safeguard Scientifics with participation from Chrysalis Ventures.

“Stress is the number one threat to employee well-being today -- contributing to chronic health conditions, absence, lost productivity, and unhealthy lifestyle behaviors,” meQuilibrium CEO Jan Bruce said in a statement. “Resilience is the antidote and the unsung hero in the wellness and health continuum. It can impact business in a way that wellness solutions don’t even begin to address... meQuilibrium is bringing the power of resilience to employers to impact hard core business processes and achieve measurable results, while boosting every employee’s personal sense of well-being.”

Employers can provide this service to their employees so that employees can manage stress and boost positivity in the workplace. First, employees take the meQ Stress Assessment on a mobile device or desktop. The assessment includes 140 questions that evaluate the user's personality type, thinking patterns, habits, and lifestyle. It then identifies which areas create the most stress in their lives. 

meQuilibrium provides users with an action plan that explains where their stress is most pronounced and why they may feel stressed by certain things. The offering tells employees what skills they can work on to help mitigate their stress. meQ also generates a meQ score, which takes into consideration both strengths and vulnerabilities. The company recommends that employees use the app for 10 minutes a day, but also spend a longer session, around 20 minutes, every week using the app. As users manage their stress better, their meQ Score improves.

Before Aetna's CarePass was shut down in 2013, meQuilibrium was one of the first two partner apps to connect to the health management platform. That year, meQuilibrium was also added to Keas' employee wellness platform.

There are a number of stress management apps and programs currently available on the market, but at the end of last year, Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), which offers insurance plans to residents of Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, launched Centered, an app that focuses on activity tracking and meditation. Shortly after launching, HCSC announced that the app would be able to integrate health data from Apple's HealthKit, and just this week the company announced that they updated the app to connect with the Apple Watch.