- It’s the third investment round that the company received;
- The investment will make it possible to impact 1 million people in 2020.
The Brazilian-Portuguese mental health startup Zenklub announced it has received a $2.8 million (BRL 16.5 million) capital infusion led by the Portuguese fund Indico Capital Partners with the participation of Brazilian executives in the health sector. It’s the third investment round that the company received.
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Indico Capital Partners, the largest Portuguese Venture Capital fund, had already invested BRL 2.5 million to the startup a year ago. With the new resources, the company expects to grow 500% this year.
The investment will be divided between the headquarters of the startup in Brazil and Portugal and will be used to improve technology and the development of new products to increase access to emotional health care. According to the startup, the investment will make it possible to impact 1 million people in 2020.
Zenklub has clients in Brazil, Mexico, Portugal and Spain and has registered “exponential” growth since the beginning of social isolation, according to CEO Rui Brandão. He said that the COVID-19 crisis has dramatically altered people’s routine, which has been causing anxiety, depression, panic syndrome and other psychosomatic illnesses. “Our mission has always been to democratize emotional health and, at a time like this, of solitude and economic recession, we reaffirm our purpose. Increasing our products, improving our services and meeting the growing demand with quality is our main challenge.”
With the investment, the startup intends to consolidate itself as the number one emotional health player in Brazil and Portugal, betting not only on tools and technology, but also on data security and creation of proprietary methodologies. In Brazil, the focus will be to the expansion in the corporate segment to establish emotional health as a benefit for customers and employees. This includes the launch of an exclusive platform for HR managers, strengthening the current platform used by more than 100 companies such as Raizen, BB Seguridade, Natura and Elo.
It’s not just Zenklub: its rival PsyAlive recently announced it raised $1.3 million (BRL 6 million) in a recent investment round led by the Neuron Ventures Fund, as the demand for mental health startups is skyrocketing during isolation measures imposed to prevent the coronavirus spread.
