Mind Alcove aspires to be your mental health and well-being companion

Hyderabad-based Mind Alcove provides a wide range of self-help tools to assist people in managing their mental well-being.

There is an increasing awareness about the importance of mental health and well-being, especially among the youth who are navigating through a fast-paced lifestyle, work pressures, over-exposure to social media, and other social factors. 

Technology, however, can play a huge role in helping youth maintain their mental health. For instance, Google has launched a digital well-being initiative to help people learn to balance their digital lives. 

Even startups are trying to do their bit by offering mental health resources and support. Some popular global mental health platforms are TalkSpace and Crisis Text Line. In India as well, there are quite a few mental health-focused startups, such as Mindhouse, YourDOST, and WySa. One Indian startup that is also taking on mental health is Mind Alcove. 

Founded in 2021 by Shubhangi Rastogi, the Hyderabad-based Mind Alcove provides a bunch of self-help tools to help people manage their mental well-being. These tools include journaling, mood tracking, and anonymously talking to a like-minded community.

Rastogi told Entrackr that most mental health companies start with therapy solutions. In Mind Alcove’s case, the startup focuses on guiding through cognitive behavior, self-help and self-care tools, and techniques that would help the person identify their emotional gaps, figure out their happiness quotient, and build habits to sustain an adequate mental health balance, she said, adding the therapy bit comes much later in emotional wellbeing journey. 

Mind Alcove started with a focus on the B2C-kind model as the company had limited offerings as well as wanted to test the waters before scaling up, she added, while explaining why the company has not partnered with corporates as of now.

To date, Mind Alcove has nearly 35,000 monthly active users, and 1.5 lakh registered users. Rastogi further said that the company’s immediate focus is on user acquisition, and updating the platform to offer better value to users. 

“We are also working on offline workshops to help raise awareness about mental health, and combat stigmas around it,” she said.

That said, mental health is considered a sunrise industry due to an increasing focus on well-being and mental health among youth and working professionals. It’s also a big market opportunity – estimated to be worth $383.31 billion in 2020, and is poised to be worth $537.97 billion by 2030. 

Naturally, there’s a fair amount of VC interest in the space. Recently, Mindpeers raised Rs 1.06 crore from investors during an episode of Shark Tank India.