Asia’s largest and fastest-growing mental health start-up, Intellect, announced on Jan 25, 2022, the closing of US$10 million in Series A funding, bringing total funding to US$13 million since launching in 2020. This is the largest Series A ever raised by a mental health start-up in Asia.
The oversubscribed round was led by New York-based HOF Capital, and welcomed new investors, including Headline, East Ventures, MS&AD Ventures, DG Daiwa Ventures, Pioneer Fund, as well as existing investor Insignia Ventures Partners.
In this round, other notable angel investors included Shopback Co-founder & CEO Henry Chan, Cathay Innovation’s Rajive Keshup, former Headspace VP of Engineering Neel Palrecha, Co-founder of US unicorn Forge Samvit Ramadurgam, Peak Co-founder Sagi Shorrer, Snap Inc. Director of SEA Anubhav Nayyar, Tinder & Match Group GM of SEA Gaurav Girotra, and family office funds of billionaire founders.
“It is very clear that a growing demand for mental healthcare in Asia will surge even higher in the new normal. At the same time, existing mental health benefits and mental healthcare systems are under-equipped to service this surging need at scale,” states Theodoric Chew, Co-founder & CEO of Intellect.
“Intellect goes beyond supporting workforces, going deeper into our broader vision of building an entirely new mental healthcare system tailored specifically for Asia. We’re honoured to be leading this charge with the support of investors and partners.”
The latest funds will be used to rapidly scale its offerings, team and expand across Asia, growing Intellect’s customers, and network of behavioural health coaches and clinical therapists. Intellect has over three million users, provides coverage in 20 countries, and is available in 15 languages.
The funding will also be used to grow the company’s product offering to serve the entire spectrum of mental healthcare, from self-care programs to live counselling, coaching, and crisis management care.
Intellect also saw its year-on-year revenue surge by over 20-fold in 2021, with a major uptick in enterprise clients signing on to its corporate mental health benefits solution – such as food panda, Shopback, Singtel, Kuehne & Nagel, and Schroders, amongst others – cementing itself as one of the largest and fastest-growing mental health start-ups in Asia.
These clients adopt Intellect regionally or globally and achieve best-in-class employee adoption rates of 20 to 40 per cent consistently, 10 times higher than traditional employee assistance programs and two to three times higher than other mental health platforms.
Intellect also partners with leading insurers and global benefits brokers across Asia, such as Mercer, to offer mental health solutions on a much larger scale.
