Whylab secures six-figure investment

The mental health start-up plans to use the money to further develop its product and hire new employees.

The Berlin-based start-up Whylab has successfully completed its pre-seed financing round. The mental health company was able to raise a mid-six-figure sum. The exact amount is not known. The business angel group Better Ventures was one of the investors. This includes Christoph Behn, Tina Dreimann, Cedric Duvinage, Björn Kolbmüller and Dörte Kaschdailis. Also on board are investor Shio Capital, Mister-Spex co-CEO Mirko Caspar, Tandemploy founder Anna Kaiser, Sofatutor CEO Stephan Bayer, Andre Heeg from BCG Digital Ventures and Julius Göllner, co-founder of F&P Solution.

Whylab intends to invest the capital in the further development of its product. The company also wants to hire new employees in the areas of tech, marketing and operations. Co-founder Luca Lea Kleene is convinced that her solution can improve the mental health of many people. "The financing round accelerates our mission to support as many people as possible in training their mental health and thus contribute to their overall satisfaction," she says. According to investor Tina Dreimann from Better Ventures, Whylab addresses a highly relevant social issue, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic. "Around 18 million adults are affected by mental illness every year in Germany alone. Preventive services in the field of mental health, such as those offered by Whylab, are therefore all the more important," she says.

Luca Lea Kleene, Nikola Berkmann and Sarah Reitz founded Whylab in December 2020 during the pandemic. The start-up aims to become a kind of "digital gym for mental health". The founders believe that in the future it could be normal to train your mental well-being just as regularly as your physical well-being. Their work focuses on a virtual group format in which participants are accompanied by a trained coach for at least six weeks in regular group sessions. A matching process is designed to ensure good group constellations. In addition to virtual coaching sessions, Whylab also offers a digital companion to support users in their personal development through regular exercise sessions.