Koh Boon Hwee, Patsnap founder and iGlobe invest in mental health platform MindFi

MINDFI, a corporate mental health and wellness platform, has raised US$750,000 from investors including iGlobe Partners, M Venture Partners and prominent angel investors.

Businessman Koh Boon Hwee was among the private individuals who invested in MindFi's pre-seed funding round, along with Patsnap founder Jeffrey Tiong, Zopim co-founder Lim Qing Ru, IncuVest co-founder Natasha Foong, finance executive Aakash Degwekar and former entrepreneur Shadab Farooqui.

Singapore-based MindFi said it has been selected for the Summer 2021 programme of Y Combinator (YC), a Silicon Valley-based startup accelerator. Erica Johnson, co-founder of unicorn startup and YC alumni Modern Health, is joining MindFi as executive adviser.

"As someone of mixed Asian heritage, I'm excited to help grow some of what has worked well in other markets to the key Asian region. It's well past time that the entire globe drops the stigma around mental health and I'm proud and excited to assist with MindFi's efforts on that journey," she said.

With the fresh funds, the company plans to work on product development and localisation for key markets in Asia. It also wants to build a team of mental health experts, innovators and researchers.

MindFi's technology gives personalised recommendations based on a user's psychometric profile enhanced by the user's daily steps, sleep, mood, breathing and heart rates. It provides guided self-care programmes and matches users with coaches and therapists.

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All employee data are anonymised and aggregated to generate team-level analytics reports for the company's human resources department.

MindFi was initially launched as a consumer-focused app in 2017 by its founder and chief executive officer Bjorn Lee, who was formerly head of product innovation at Zopim. The MindFi app initially offered free and subscription-based memberships to guide users through calming mental exercises such as mindfulness and cognitive behavioural therapy programmes.

The startup now has over 30 enterprise clients across Asia. This comes as employees report higher levels of anxiety during the pandemic.

"The future of work is mind fitness. I started this company because I spent 10 years struggling with late nights, anxiety attacks and chest pains from work stress, which are all symptoms of an unfit mind or poor mental health. You shouldn't need a PhD in psychology or neuroscience to know how to de-stress," said Mr Lee.