Founded in 2015, Singapore-headquartered digital health company Mobio Interactive announced that it has closed $1.8 million in a seed funding round. The round was led by Singapore-based Verge HealthTech Fund along with Atlas Asset Management, Creative Ventures and VC giant SOSV.

Mobio Interactive develops and commercializes clinically validated and objectively quantified software to prevent, measure and treat mental illness.

WHAT’S IT FOR

The funds will be used to advance the deep tech and clinical validation of Am Mindfulness (Am), which was the first and currently only meditation app which the company claims to outperform placebo in randomized controlled trials. Am also has the ability for app users to quantify their stress through an easy-to-use proprietary computer vision and machine learning tool, without the need of using a wearable device.

Am is available for download from the app stores, and premium access can be purchased through subscriptions. In addition, several health insurers are also now providing Am to their policyholders as a form of scientifically validated and data-rich preventative medicine.

THE LARGER TREND

A study that was published in Nature Human Behavior in 2019 found that a closed-loop digital meditation platform, dubbed MediTrain, helped improve and sustain young adults' attention spans, MobiHealthNews reported. 

In June, mindfulness and meditation app Headspace built on their February Series C raise with an additional $47.7 million in funding, bringing the round's equity total to $100.7 million. Headspace’s free-to-download meditation app allows enrolled users to select an area of their mental or behavioral health they would like to focus on and receive a sample of meditative exercises targeting this area.

ON THE RECORD

“No one - not me, not you, not anyone, anywhere - can be at their optimal performance 100% of the time. This fact is no different in the context of disease. Therefore, while Am has specific content for cancer patients and specific tools for people negatively affected by the pandemic, the focus of Am remains on better living for everyone. Even if you don't have cancer or depression or some other diagnosable illness, there are improvements to be made. It's the difference between then and now that truly matters.

Am therefore focuses on personal growth, those personal improvements according to our own personal definitions. In this way, Am strives to be a universal tool for everyone. We are in the business of making this app, this digital therapeutic, the most effective form of psychotherapy anywhere,” commented Dr Bechara Saab, CEO and Neuroscientist of Mobio Interactive.