Simcoach Games Secures Funding to Accelerate Development of Educational Games Addressing Behavioral Health Challenges

The company’s evidence-based and clinician-led educational games provide powerful solutions for behavioral health clinicians and healthcare providers to build essential job readiness skills in individuals with disabilities

Simcoach Games, a health tech company specializing in gamified skill-building tools for individuals with behavioral disabilities, today announced a $265,000 seed funding round led by the Richard King Mellon Foundation. The company will use the funds to develop three games focused on building job readiness for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, teaching essential pre-employment skills through interactive and structured gameplay. The new games represent a significant addition to Simcoach’s growing portfolio of clinically informed digital games, further driving its mission to improve lives through innovative game-based solutions.

Simcoach Games breaks through employment barriers for individuals with diverse needs and backgrounds by developing educational video games that help build life, vocational, and social skills with clear objectives and engaging gameplay. Integrated with established behavioral health frameworks and applied behavior analysis (ABA) practices, the games combine clinically validated content, data-driven progress tracking, and deep collaboration with behavioral health experts to support effective, personalized treatment and care. Designed to empower individuals with a wide range of behavioral health needs, Simcoach Games’ interactive gameplay has demonstrated success in supporting skill development across clinical settings and value-based healthcare environments.

Individuals living with behavioral and neurodevelopmental disabilities—including those related to autism spectrum disorder—frequently face major obstacles when it comes to finding a job. Global studies estimate that up to 85% of autistic adults are unemployed, citing difficulties with job interviews, limited access to skill-building, and workplace barriers as key reasons for low employment rates.

The new trilogy of games from Simcoach Games will provide practice with self-presentation, interview readiness, and workplace communication. Respectively, the games will help players better understand the expectations for professional attire in various job roles, build time management and organizational skills ahead of interviews, and gain experience with realistic interview scenarios by practicing responses to common questions, maintaining positive body language, and engaging in professional conversations.

“This initiative marks a pivotal moment for Simcoach Games, significantly advancing our commitment to creating behavioral health games that allow individuals to achieve their full potential in a fun and effective way,” said Brian Kaleida, CEO of Simcoach Games. “As a complement to traditional interventions, the job-readiness games will provide valuable pre-employment learning experiences that build self-confidence, better communication, and a foundation for success. We believe these games will provide critical support for not only job seekers, but also for clinicians and healthcare providers seeking engaging methods to measure skill development progress into treatment plans, therapy, and value-based care models."

In addition to game development, Simcoach Games will leverage the funding to build a comprehensive curriculum to accompany the games, ensuring they can be seamlessly integrated into behavioral health services, education, and home-based learning environments. Specifically, behavioral health service providers and clinicians can embed the games and accompanying curriculum into therapy sessions and parent training programs.

Today, Simcoach Games offers hundreds of engaging games with millions of downloads worldwide, leveraged by healthcare organizations, clinicians, educators, and families. Emphasizing authentic partnerships and player-centric development, Simcoach Games takes a collaborative approach to delivering effective gaming solutions. For example, its collaboration with ABA provider StepOne Neurodiversity Services marries game design expertise with clinician-led, data-driven insights to design games for personalized, accessible, and engaging support for individuals with autism.

“Our collaboration approach is grounded in delivering measurable outcomes at scale,” Kaleida says. “By integrating evidence-based practices into interactive game formats, we’re developing scalable solutions that support behavior change and skill development across a range of behavioral health needs. With built-in proprietary data tracking, our games consistently capture actionable insights—empowering providers to measure progress, personalize interventions, and ultimately drive better client outcomes. As we continue to expand our offerings, we remain committed to this end goal.”

Simcoach Games will be attending the ABAI Annual Convention in Washington, DC from May 22-26, 2025. Edward Justin Page, the company’s Director of Clinical Innovation, will participate in a symposium focused on using technology to augment or improve treatment outcomes in behavioral treatment alongside other experts in technology and behavioral health. The session, Using Technology to Improve Outcomes in Behavioral Treatment, will take place on May 26 at 10:00 am ET.

Those attending ABAI Annual Convention are encouraged to listen in on Simcoach Games’ session to learn more about how gamification enhances behavioral interventions with rich, actionable data for clinicians.

For more information on Simcoach Games, visit https://www.simcoachgames.com/.

About Simcoach Games

Since 2005, Simcoach Games has been at the forefront of creating engaging, imaginative and highly interactive virtual learning solutions. Having produced hundreds of video games with millions of downloads for leading business enterprises, government agencies, and academic institutions, Simcoach’s games facilitate active learning, encourage positive behavior change, and streamline training. Visit simcoachgames.com to see our games in action, and how we make a difference for our clients, partners and diverse learning communities.

About Richard King Mellon Foundation

Founded in 1947, the Richard King Mellon Foundation is the largest foundation in Southwestern Pennsylvania, and one of the 50 largest in the world. The Foundation’s 2023 year-end net assets were $2.9 billion, and its Trustees in 2023 disbursed more than $176 million in grants and program-related investments. The Foundation focuses its funding on six primary program areas, delineated in its 2021-2030 Strategic Plan.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250506198357/en/