Posted by Mumbai: Raipur, Chhattisgarh-based mental health-tech startup BetterSpace has raised Rs 4.5 million in its maiden pre-seed funding round led by PedalStart – a startup community-builder and accelerator.
The mental health-tech startup BetterSpace will utilise the fresh funding to improve its existing offline and online services, developing a new product range consisting of games and tool kits. Also, it will enhance marketing and brand visibility, optimizing technology and the app for boosting accessibility across multiple types of devices and attracting and acquiring talent, among other strategic areas. Before this, the startup had remained majorly bootstrapped.
“We are elated to announce our pre-seed round powered by PedalStart – an exciting milestone in the journey of growing BetterSpace. The funds raised through this round shall not just meet our short-term working capital needs, but also ensure our stable, sustainable growth, by enabling BetterSpace to move forward in a cash-positive yet socially impactful manner over the long term,” said Shivli Shrivastava and Abhilash Shrivastava, Co-Founder and Director of BetterSpace.
“We at PedalStart have been impressed by BetterSpace founders’ innovative and solution-oriented approach, their commitment to embracing technology, and most importantly, could resonate with their vision of creating and nurturing safe-inclusive spaces through a mix of online and offline initiatives focused on mental health, sexuality and disability awareness. We look forward to extending our continued support to BetterSpace to enable them to create positive social impact at scale”, commented Manas Pal and Aditya Darolia, Co-Founders of PedalStart.
Notably, BetterSpace was a part of PedalStart’s ‘Zero-to-One’ cohort (a community-based, outcome-driven programme for supporting early-stage startups) in 2022.
“Ever since we participated in their cohort, PedalStart has been a constant source of valuable support and mentorship and even a part of crucial decision-making for the business at BetterSpace,” Shivli Shrivastava shared about their association with PedalStart.
BetterSpace provides its psychologist-led counselling, workshops, community engagement programs, and other initiatives aimed at solving numerous existing mental health challenges in society. Since its inception, the startup has to date facilitated 5000+ offline sessions across schools, hospitals, community centres, corporate offices, et al, positively impacting the lives of more than 2 lakh people (including both children and adults) pan-India.
In addition to that, BetterSpace has already developed its mobile app, and other self-paced products and toolkits for enabling the betterment of mental health and fueling personal growth. Furthermore, they have ambitious plans to grow rapidly and expand operational footprints to at least 10+ Indian states and internationally in the next one year.