INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Just a few years ago, it might have been a bit of a challenge to convince investors that a mindfulness app would end up being a big business
get control of their sleep, Calm serves as a suite of content for users focusing on mental wellness
into a daily habit and help people just generally feel, well, more calm
The company says it has raised $27 million in a new financing round that values it at a $250 million pre-money led by Insight Venture
in-the-moment sessions to tracks that are designed to soothing enough to help people get ready to go to sleep
Everything boils down to trying to help teach users mindfulness, which is in of itself a skill that requires training, co-founder Alex Tew
rigor that many other companies with a heavy testing culture to ensure that the experience is simple for users that will jump in and jump
As more and more users pick up Calm and start listening to the tracks, the company can start to figure out what kinds of sessions or tools
are helping people want to come back more often and, in theory, start feeling better with those kinds of practices
If you talk to investors in the valley, helping founders manage the highs and lows of starting a company is increasingly part of the
As more politicians talk about it, as the media treat it as something normal and healthy to do, more and more people step out of the shadows
To be able to talk about that and understand it is a very healthy and positive thing
this new wave.Calm and other mindfulness apps are not the only companies at play here
to manage the amount of time users end up glued to their screens
While those are centered around helping users manage their time on their phones, it does show that even the largest companies in the world
are increasingly aware of the potential negative effects their devices may have spawned from people spending all their time on their
phones.But by extension, Calm is not the only app where people can throw on some headphones and listen to a soothing voice with a British
Headspace is another obvious player in the space, having also raised a substantial amount of funding
This is a successful business with very high margins and a huge addressable market
