Singapore-based corporate mental health and wellness platform MindFi has raised $2 million from an oversubscribed seed funding round participated by Canva and Slack backer Global Founders Capital and M Venture Partners. 

The investing round was also joined by angel investors, including Carousell co-founder Marcus Tan, Carro executive Kenji Narushima, and Spin co-founder Derrick Ko. 

Launched in 2017, MindFi offers guided self-care programmes and smart matching with coaches and therapists. It also hosts community forums and group therapy on its mobile app, which is available on both iOS and Android devices. The platform provides human resource leaders with anonymised analytics to measure and support their employees' health and productivity. 

Personalised recommendations are also offered. These are based on a person's wellbeing profile, which combines their mental health data from using the MindFi app, such as moods and stress levels, and physical health data from wearable devices, such as sleep, heart rates, and daily activities.

WHY IT MATTERS

According to a press statement, MindFi will deploy its seed fund to drive product development and localise offerings in its key markets. "Wellbeing is multi-dimensional and we seek to build a localised understanding of wellbeing that takes physical and cultural differences into account," said CEO Bjorn Lee, who also shared that their ultimate goal is to spur a mind fitness movement and self-management of mental wellbeing.

The company now operates in 20 markets across Asia-Pacific where it is accessible in 16 languages. Its list of corporate clients includes Visa, Willis Towers Watson, and Patsnap.  

THE LARGER TREND

In August last year, MindFi scored SG$1 million ($750,000) in a pre-seed funding round which was initially used to hasten its product development and localisation in major Asian markets.

A report by Transparency Market Research projected that the corporate wellness market in APAC will hit $8.6 billion by 2028, growing at a 7.6% CAGR from last year. Its major growth driver is the increasing cases of chronic disorders in the region, along with a rising senior population. 

ON THE RECORD

"MindFi addresses great inter-ethnic differences by combining a unique community-based approach with native data insights, clinical and technological understanding, and lived experiences", said Erica Johnson, founder of Modern Health.

Kua Ee Heok, professor at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine of the National University of Singapore said: "While there is a scramble for new health solutions in Asia, the region is very diverse in culture, language, and illness behaviour. Technology products need to account for the unique cultural beliefs, mores, nuances and feelings of their users in order to deliver the best types of utility value on a regular basis. I am glad that MindFi is committed to this vision."

"Mental health has been traditionally overlooked in most countries, but more so in fast-growth Asia. We feel the market is currently poorly served and as founder-first investors, we are thrilled to work with the MindFi team, who together bring complementary skills and insight to solve a significant problem," Mayank Parekh, a partner at M Venture Partners, also commented.