Wellknowlogy: 8/16/22

Wellknowlogy is a curious, honest, and discerning source of news and thoughts on innovations in the wellness industry. The intention of this newsletter is to provide an efficient way for providers, technologists, investors, and enthusiasts to stay in sync and informed about endeavors to increase wellbeing.

This week saw some big moves in mental health tech and creative approaches to therapeutics and diagnostics. As a music lover and a justified believer in its ability to impact emotions, the prospect of Lucid's customized musical therapy strikes a chord with me. I've also heard some good things about gaming's potential as a therapeutic aid, so it's nice to see that subject return to the headlines.

Here are some AI-generated images of your brain on music therapy:

On the diagnostic side, seeing some scientific progress in developing a wearable that measures brain activity through the skin is pretty mind-blowing. In a world where mental health diagnostics often come down to first-person narrative accounts, the prospect of minimally invasive, objective diagnostic technology is a promising change of pace.

With that out of the way, here's what happened last week:

Fundings

• Singapore-based Evo, a DTC seller of H&W products, raises $600K in seed funding led by East Ventures

• Meditation app Pura Mente nips $1.3M seed round

• Salvo Health secures $10.5M in seed funding to scale virtual health clinic for chronic conditions

• Personal training app Another Round raises undisclosed angel round

• Selena Gomez's mental health app, Wondermind, reaches milestone $100M valuation

• VR sports app Gym Class secures $8M in funding

• Materna Medical raises $22M to heal women’s pelvic floors

• Addiction treatment service Quit Genius raised $15.3 in undisclosed funding

• Naborforce, a community and independent living platform, closed $9M series A financing round led by Translink Capital

• Highmark Interactive issues $1M convertible note to expand mental health testing

• Atai Life Sciences nabs $175M in loan facility from hercules capital

• Digital therapeutics platform Lucid raises $3.14M in seed financing

Neat Articles

• Whole Foods co-founder launching restaurant chain

• Mental health apps and tech helping a little; gaming helping a lot

• The rise of the chief wellness officer: is the trend growing?

• Health and wellness disruption gets personal(ized)

• Researchers develop wearable technology to measure key brain mechanisms through the skin

• How to sell health and wellness to consumers tired of hearing about it

• Mental fatigue is no illusion: scientists figure out why thinking hard makes you tired

Market News

• Sleep apps go viral in China as subscribers double after COVID-19 breakout

• Italian Government launches NutrInform Battery app as preferred diet tool

• Global chain of stretching studios TopStretching drives expansion in the Gulf and MENA using franchise model

• Samsung pushes holistic health innovation with new Galaxy watches

• Wellness and the metaverse: Global Wellness Summit announces groundbreaking “call for innovation” competition

• Amazon Care adds mental health care with a Ginger partnership

• Meditation app Calm reportedly lays off 20% of employees

• VC investment in youth mental health startups skyrocketed 1,376% in the past 4 years

• Turnley H&W provider Simplex Wellness unites with Healthease

Tidbits for You and Yours

• Naturopathic doctor Natasha Vani explains how changing health habits can impact chronic disease

• Study shows the impact of lack of sleep in children on their brain development

• Vitamin D supplements help alleviate depression

Closing Kernel of Wisdom

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

— Viktor E. Frankl, a neurologist, psychologist and Holocaust survivor

Thanks for reading this week's Wellknowlogy! I hope you found some value here. If there's anything I can add to make this more useful for you, let me know.

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Wishing you a great week

Warmly,

Dayton