French startup moka.care has raised a new Series A funding round of $16 million (€15 million). The company focuses on mental wellbeing in the workplace. It offers a full-fledged service that sits between employees and HR departments.
Left Lane Capital leads today’s funding round. Existing investor Singular joins again. VC company Origin (co-founded by Blaise Matudi, Ilan Abehassera and Salomon Aiach) and Antoine Griezmann are investing in the company for the first time.
When people feel depressed, they often cite work as an ongoing problem. That is why mental health is becoming an important issue for companies of all sizes and in all sectors. And there are many reasons why that is the case.
First, companies want to create a positive corporate culture for their employees. But buying a pool table and hanging inspirational posters on the walls just isn’t enough. Employees want to know that they can call for help when they need it.
Offering Moka.care as an employee benefit means you care about the mental wellbeing of your employees. It is both a good signal and a nice perk.
Second, employees who feel engaged at work are more productive and stay on the job longer. Making mental wellbeing a priority is common sense, but it also makes sense on a business level.
In some sectors, such as the tech industry, it has become quite difficult to recruit new employees for specific roles. Therefore, improving employee retention has become an important metric for HR departments.
The result is moka.care, a service that aims to align the interests of everyone. If you want to talk about your mental health, the hardest step is the first step. Therefore, billing is usage-based, meaning the startup will generate more revenue if people find the service useful and interact with it. That is also why the startup wants to make it as easy as possible to interact with its service.
moka.care can be used to access self-service mental health content. Employees can also use the service for customized care.
When employees first contact moka.care, the company’s team of psychologists will help you understand your personal situation. The startup can send you some recommendations for practitioners working with the platform – it could be a psychologist, a certified coach, or a licensed therapist.
After that, you can talk to a mental health professional in person or remotely. Depending on your company’s moka.care contract, some sessions are free and you can start paying if it becomes regular treatment.
HR departments cannot spy on their employees. But they get a dashboard with several metrics, which they can use to feel the pulse of the company. moka.care also offers group sessions for managers and leaders to increase their knowledge of mental wellbeing.
So far, 100 companies have signed up for the service, meaning 15,000 employees have access to moka.care. Some clients include Spendesk, Qonto, ManoMano, RipCurl, Volcom, L’Oréal, and Engie. With today’s financing round, the company plans to iterate its product and expand into new European markets.
