To provide mental health services across Asia, Insignia, Y Combinator back US $2.2 M round of Intellect

Intellect, a Singapore-based mental healthcare service, said today that it has raised US$2.2 million in a pre-Series A round-headed by current investor Insignia Ventures Partners, as well as new investors Y Combinator and XA Network.

Rainforest CEO and co-founder JJ Chai, Prenetics & CircleDNA founder and CEO Danny Yeung, and Google Global HR Operations Director Gilberto Gaeta were among those who participated in the round, as well as family offices and angel investors.

The additional funds will mostly be utilized to expand the business across Asia. A portion of the money will be invested in the company’s product line, which will cater to a wide range of healthcare needs.

With its end-to-end, 24-hour mental healthcare system in a single app, Intellect intends to make mental healthcare and wellbeing assistance accessible to everyone by 2020. It claims to have over 2.5 million users and 20 business clients in 12 countries and 11 languages throughout the world.

“The big challenges in the region is that stigma is especially high towards traditional approaches to mental health and available services are outdated and not readily accessible to all,” said Intellect co-founder and CEO Theodoric Chew.

“The main thing here is that it’s not meant to replace therapy, “Chew added in a talk with Insignia early this year. “Right from the get-go, it’s more of a lightweight tool to be a stop-gap for the masses that can’t access a live therapist or psychologist.”

The need for mental health treatments has increased dramatically in the last two years as a result of the epidemic. According to the World Health Organization, new diagnoses of depression and anxiety disorders increased 400% in 2021.

“In meeting this global need, Intellect has proven itself to be the leading company coming out of Asia,” said Yinglan Tan, founding managing partner at Insignia.

Intellect has supported a diverse variety of customers, including foodpanda, Shopback, and Carousell, Avery Dennison, and Schroders, as well as government organizations, through its large network of local providers and mental health practitioners in the region.

The firm is partnering with top universities and institutions, including the National University of Singapore, King’s College London, University of Queensland, and the Singapore General Hospital, on over 10 clinical trials.

Intellect is also in the current Y Combinator cohort.