Sparks - Kooth

Kooth shares rose sharply following news that Meta’s US teen safety settlement could provide substantial new funding for youth mental health initiatives. On 26 August 2026, Meta agreed to pay up to $18bn to settle claims brought by most US states over alleged mental health harms linked to Facebook and Instagram.

California, Kooth’s largest US customer, is set to receive $1.5–2.1bn, with a significant portion expected to support the prevention or remediation of mental-health and other harms to young people associated with social-media use. While there is no indication that any settlement proceeds have been allocated directly to Kooth, the funding priorities are closely aligned with the role Soluna already plays in California’s youth mental-health infrastructure.

This may provide a tailwind not only for renewal and potential expansion of the California contract, but also for further wins through Kooth’s state alliance model as other US states direct settlement proceeds towards youth mental-health programmes. Other states, including New York and Connecticut, have indicated that settlement proceeds will support mental-health, education and related programmes. Ultimately, this supportive funding environment strengthens the strategic case for population-scale digital mental-health provision and, in our view, supports Kooth’s longer-term US growth opportunity.