Calm

Calm is a digital wellness company which offers guided meditations to make people happy as well as mindfulness and sleep programs through a smartphone app. Its audio content is designed to strengthen mental fitness and address mental health challenges such as stress, anxiety, insomnia, and depression. The company started out as a website in 2011 where users were trained to stare at a screen and listen to waves on a beach for two minutes without touching their mouse. In February 2013, more content was added and the company launched a mobile app. Calm was named by Apple as the 2017 iPhone App of the Year and received Editors' Choice certification by Google in 2018. Calm offers content in English, Spanish, French, and German and operates Calm Business, a business-to-business (B2B) covering over 10 million employees as of March 2022.

Calm gained significant traction in 2020 during the Covid-19 lockdowns. It became the most downloaded digital wellness app during April 2020 with 3.9 million downloads worldwide, including 1.6 million downloads in the US. Kaiser Permanente, a large managed care service provider, provided Calm free for its 12.4 million members in May 2019. Calm also partnered with CNN on the 2020 US presidential election day to play the sound of rain hitting leaves on air, a marketing effort that went viral on social media.

As of December 2020, Calm has reported over 100 million app downloads (compared with over 40 million in early 2019 and over 80 million as of May 2020) and was valued at USD 2 billion.

In October 2022, the company launched a new clinical mental health offering called “Calm Health,” marking its expansion into the mental health space. The new solution provides condition-specific programs designed to bridge mental and physical care and includes tools for communication with providers and medication tracking. This solution was created for the company by Ripple Health, which was acquired by Calm in February 2022.

Key customers and partnerships

As of December 2022, the company has partnered with over 20 brands to collaborate and provide its services through sales partnerships. These brands include Xbox, Amazon, YouTube, Adidas, Fitbit, and American Express.

Funding and financials

In December 2020, Calm raised USD 75 million in a series C funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners doubling it’s valuation to USD 2.0 billion. Calm planned to use the funding to expand operations globally and broaden its B2B offerings.