Indian mental wellness startup Mindhouse enters UAE

• Startup sees rise in demand from consumer and corporate fronts.
• Signs exclusive partnership with Emirates NBD, offering three months complimentary access to the bank’s card customers.
• Mindhouse app functions as an online studio, providing meditation, breathe work, and yoga content in the form of scheduled live classes and a vast library of modules.

Dubai: Meditation-based mental wellness startup – Mindhouse – with an initial focus on the consumer market has entered the UAE after its success in India.

The company foresees a strong potential for growth on the B2B front and plans to undertake multiple corporate tie-ups in the coming months, to offer access to the app and bespoke wellness packages to large organisations based in the UAE.

It has signed an exclusive partnership with Emirates NBD, offering three months complimentary access to the bank’s card customers.

Founded by Zomato co-founder Pankaj Chaddah and ex-Zomato Chief of Staff Pooja Khanna, the company aims to improve the mental health of its users through app-based meditation & yoga courses that help increase productivity, improve sleep patterns and reduce stress and anxiety.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the UAE has the highest regional level of depression, at 5.1 per cent of the population and the country also ranks high for anxiety, with 4.1 per cent of people admitting to a problem.

Global expansion

Seven out of ten people in the UAE have expressed their openness to seek help for their mental health issues, according to a survey carried out by YouGov for Dubai Health Authority in 2019.

 “Mental health has come to the forefront with the on-going Covid-19 crisis, and the entire space has seen a surge in demand – both on the consumer and corporate fronts. This has enabled us to quickly scale up our operations, with over 100,000 downloads of the app, and 600+ corporate tie-ups already established in India,” Pooja Khanna, Co-founder of Mindhouse, said.

The startup has entered the region at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic has worsened the mental health of consumers suffering from health issues, disorders, anxiety, stress, job loss, loss in income, and business.

“We have now decided to expand globally, with the UAE as our first international launch. We believe there is a strong need for a mental wellness solution like ours currently and are very excited to enter the market,” Khanna said.

The Mindhouse app functions as an online studio, providing meditation, breathe work, and yoga content in the form of scheduled live classes and a vast library of modules that can be consumed anytime by the user.

Built for beginners and advanced meditators alike, the app recommends content based on the user’s selected goals from sleep, patience, focus, relaxed mind and relaxed body, and their past experience in meditation.

The app allows the user to chat with the instructor for recommendations and queries, and also tracks daily progress against set goals. It works on a subscription model, with a quarterly plan priced at Dh60, and an annual plan at Dh120. Given the current circumstances, the company offers a 1-month free subscription to all its new users. 

 “With a population of close to nine million people, and high awareness of mind-body wellness solutions coupled with high disposable income, we see tremendous potential in the UAE market. We estimate that 60-70 per cent of the population will adopt digital wellness products and services, which makes the UAE an obvious destination of choice for us,” Pankaj Chaddah, Co-Founder, Mindhouse, said.