Coa, an online emotional fitness studio for live classes and one-on-one therapy, raised $3 million in a Seed round.
The funding round was led by Crosslink Ventures and RedSea Ventures, with participation from Alpaca VC, Neil Parikh (Founder of Casper), several angel investors, and professional basketball player and mental health advocate Kevin Love.
According to the company, its online Emotional Fitness Studio will feature live, 8-week therapist-led interactive group classes designed to create an “emotional fitness workout” to bolster mental health. The classes start at $25, will launch later this year, and already more than 3,500 people have enrolled to date.
The online fitness studio is designed to address common challenges like managing mental health in leadership roles, anxiety, imposter syndrome, parenting, and more.
The company plans to use new funds to launch the online studio, hire a team of therapist emotional fitness instructors, expand program offerings, support ongoing emotional fitness tracking, digital exercises, and community features, and open up brick-and-mortar studios as soon as safety protocols allow.
Before the online studio launch, Coa hosted mental health pop-up gyms around the country and offered its emotional fitness curriculum privately to employees at Asana, Spotify, Silicon Valley Bank, and other companies. Employer demand for its emotionally fit leadership and workplace curriculum has grown 900% since March 2020 and the beginning of the pandemic, the company said.
“On average, people wait 11 years between the onset of mental health symptoms and seeking treatment,” said NBA All-Star and Coa investor Kevin Love. “Coa is rethinking how we approach mental health to make it easier for people to take that first step and get ongoing support. In turn, this will change the way people approach emotional fitness and hopefully seek support earlier.”
Wellness companies have raised $523 million in the first nine months of 2020, according to the latest 9M 2020 Digital Health Funding report. Recently, Mobio Interactive, a digital mental health therapeutics and meditation app closed a $1.8 million Seed funding round.
