US $10 M received by YC-backed mental health startup Intellect in Series A
Intellect, a Singapore-based mental health firm, has raised $10 million in a Series A funding round headed by HOF Capital in the United States. Headline, East Ventures, MS&AD Ventures, DG Daiwa Ventures, Insignia Ventures Partners, and Pioneer Fund are among the other institutional investors.
A number of angel investors, including Henry Chan of Shopback, Rajive Keshup of Cathay Innovation, Neel Palrecha (former VP of Engineering at Headspace), Samvit Ramadurgam of Forge, Sagi Shorrer of Peak, Anubhav Nayyar of Snap, Gaurav Girotra of Tinder, as well as billionaire founders’ family office funds, participated in the round.
Intellect plans to use the funds to grow its presence in Asia and hire more product, engineering, and commercial staff. Aside from that, the firm plans to expand its product offerings to include the entire range of mental health treatment, from self-care to live counselling, coaching, and crisis management.
Intellect raised $2.2 million in a pre-Series A investment headed by Insignia Ventures Partners, including additional investors Y Combinator and XA Network, five months ago. With its end-to-end, 24-hour mental healthcare system in a single app, Intellect promises to make mental healthcare and wellbeing assistance accessible to everyone by 2020. In the previous two years, the epidemic has increased the demand for mental health services. In 2021, the World Health Organization reported a 400% increase in new depression and anxiety disorder diagnoses.
“Existing mental health benefits and mental healthcare systems are under-equipped to service this surging need at scale,” stated Intellect CEO and Co-Founder Theodoric Chew. “Intellect goes beyond supporting workforces, going deeper into our broader vision of building an entirely new mental healthcare system tailored specifically for Asia.”
Intellect’s mental health benefits solution for businesses comprises clinically-based digital therapy programmes and telehealth services that link employees with a panel of expert coaches and clinical therapists in minutes.
The consumer version of the programme includes a self-guided skill-building platform as well as bite-sized “rescue sessions” for dealing with unpleasant emotions. Intellect claims to have over 2.5 million users and 20 business clients across 12 countries and 11 languages as of late August.
In 2021, the firm claimed to have had a 20-fold increase in sales year over year. It entailed a huge increase in enterprise clients signing up for the company’s corporate mental health benefits package, such as foodpanda, an online ordering and food delivery network, and Shopback, a digital loyalty and e-commerce platform.
Intellect also collaborates with insurers and global benefits brokers throughout Asia to provide mental health services on a much wider scale.
Over 10 clinical investigations are now underway at the National University of Singapore (NUS), King’s College London, University of Queensland, and the Singapore General Hospital in conjunction with major universities and organisations.
