Trend: Harnessing digital tech to improve mental health and wellness

From mind­ful­ness apps to vir­tu­al ther­a­py ses­sions, dig­i­tal tools offer instant access to well­ness resources (The Globe and Mail): In 2015, Brie Code was work­ing at lead­ing video game com­pa­ny Ubisoft as lead arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence pro­gram­mer when she real­ized that many peo­ple she knew – about half, by her esti­ma­tion – found video games boring.

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Happify Health raises $73M to deepen partnerships with pharmaceutical companies and insurance payers

Hap­pi­fy Health rais­es $73M to expand its dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic care deliv­ery capa­bil­i­ties (Mobi­Health News): Found­ed in 2012, Hap­pi­fy is best known for dig­i­tal pro­grams that pro­vid­ed auto­mat­ed self-guid­ed sup­port across var­i­ous areas of men­tal health and well­ness, such as stress man­age­ment for employ­ees or health plan mem­bers. Should the user need addi­tion­al sup­port, the platform…

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What will the ‘Peloton for mental health’ look like five years from now? And, who will develop it?

Mind­Labs rais­es £1.4M for its new plat­form, a ‘Pelo­ton for men­tal health’ (TechCrunch): Ide­al­ly, men­tal well­ness should be con­sid­ered part of a healthy dai­ly rou­tine, like exer­cise. But even exer­cise is dif­fi­cult to turn into a reg­u­lar habit. Pelo­ton addressed phys­i­cal fit­ness by com­bin­ing smart sta­tion­ary bikes with live class­es and com­mu­ni­ty fea­tures to create…

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Meditation apps have gone mainstream in the covid-19 era

__ 1. Best med­i­ta­tion apps: prac­tice mind­ful­ness with Head­space, Calm and more (TechRadar): “The best med­i­ta­tion apps could help you to sleep bet­ter, reduce your stress lev­els and find some much-need­ed inner peace. But giv­en the sit­u­a­tion right now with Covid-19, even if med­i­ta­tion apps just give you a break from the news and a…

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Meditation app Headspace raises $93 million in equity and debt to accelerate clinical validation and geographic expansion

Head­space rais­es $93 mil­lion in equi­ty and debt as it pur­sues clin­i­cal val­i­da­tion for mind­ful­ness (TechCrunch): “Head­space, the Los Ange­les-based mind­ful­ness and med­i­ta­tion com­pa­ny locked in a bit­ter com­pet­i­tive strug­gle with Calm for lead­er­ship in the men­tal well­ness world, has raised new cap­i­tal to try to take the pole posi­tion. The com­pa­ny has just closed…

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