Take a deep breath and count to five. As you exhale, imagine that all of your thoughts and worries are leaves floating down a river. Observe them and let them pass. A place to cultivate one’s inner peace might be exactly what a year like this one requires and meditation app Calm aims to provide its users with just that.
The company announced Tuesday that it raised $75 million in a Series C round to continue helping those dealing with feelings of loneliness, depression and anxiety in quarantine and beyond. Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round with participation from TPG and Insight Venture Partners. The latest round bring’s the unicorn’s valuation to $2 billion.
Two in five Americans have been struggling with mental-health issues throughout the course of the pandemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Calm has experienced rapid growth as a result. The app has been downloaded over 100 million times since its launch and now has nearly four million paying members, according to the company.
“We’ve greatly expanded our audio library in recent years to support and strengthen mental wellness through meditation, music, wisdom and sleep,” Michael Acton Smith, Calm co-founder and co-CEO, said in a statement.
The company plans to aggressively hire as it continues to scale. Calm is currently hiring for dozens of open remote positions spanning several departments. Multiple content, engineering, marketing and sales roles are available now.
The additional capital will go toward expanding the company’s presence in wellness at work programs. The company’s enterprise offering, Calm for Business, offers meditation and body stretching exercises that aim to improve employee stress and anxiety levels, sleep and mindfulness.
“We’ve only just begun supporting companies on their journey to increase employee resilience,” Alex Tew, Calm co-founder and co-CEO, said in a statement. “This financing round will advance our efforts in building a strong global workforce, meeting overwhelming market demand.”
Early partners of Calm for Business have seen a 25 percent adoption rate and a 75 percent engagement rate among employee populations, according to the company. Over 600 organizations have signed on to Calm for Business so far, including Universal Music Group, Lincoln and Kraft Heinz.
In addition to its meditative content, the app also includes interactive features like breathing technique exercises and mood check-ins. Calm’s audio content is available in seven different languages and the app just launched in Japanese this week.
In 2016, Calm launched its Sleep Stories series, which featured audio contributions from celebrities like Laura Dern, Harry Styles and Mathew McConaughey. The series grabbed headlines earlier this year when it got a shoutout on Saturday Night Live.
Prospective Calm users can choose to sign up for a free seven-day trial and later have the option to sign up for Calm Premium, which costs $69.99 a year or $14.99 a month.
The San Francisco-based company also counts Goldman Sachs and Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, as new investors in its latest round. Actor Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures, an earlier investor, also participated.
The latest round brings Calm’s total funding to $217 million, according to the company.
