Sophia Thiel founds a start-up

The former fitness influencer is founding a mental health start-up, together with her boyfriend. She announced this in a video.

"We are right at Marienplatz in an office," says influencer Sophia Thiel at the beginning of her new Youtube video, announcing: She and her boyfriend Raphael Birchner are founding a start-up. In their nearly ten-minute video, the two give a room tour of their small office in downtown Munich.

Thiel and Birchner founded the mental health start-up SR Health. Over dinner in late 2020, the two came up with the idea that "the content of psychotherapy should be accessible to everyone," says Birchner, describing the business idea. "Our higher vision is to invalidate the perfect make-believe world on social media," Thiel continues. Psychotherapy, he says, should lose its negative stigma. Both speak openly about having therapy experience. Thiel and Birchner have already developed a concept and prototype, are currently looking for collaborators and working with therapists. "We don't want to tell you too much yet, though," Thiel says. "Not that it's all a year away. Then the excitement will be gone."

The company SR Health was already entered in the company register at the Traunstein District Court at the beginning of May. However, an address in Rohrdorf is entered as the business address, not in downtown Munich. The two have stated as their business purpose: "Development and distribution of digital applications, in particular but not exclusively web applications and mobile applications to improve mental well-being and to support diagnosis and treatment of mental suffering." In addition, they apparently want to sell sleep sprays, diaries and "other products to improve mental well-being." However, medical activities are excluded.

Sophia Thiel became known as a fitness influencer, but withdrew from social media for almost two years. She suffered from a mental illness and developed an eating disorder. Since her return, she has been giving tips on how to improve mental health, and has also written a book.