Mental health tech start-up BetterSpace, based in Raipur secured Rs 4.5 million in its first pre-seed funding round, led by start-up community-builder and accelerator PedalStart. Before this, the start-up primarily relied on bootstrapping for funding. 

The company said in its release that the fund will be devoted to improving its existing offline and online services, developing a new product range ange consisting of games and toolkits, enhancing marketing and brand visibility, optimising technology and the app for boosting accessibility across multiple types of devices, attracting and acquiring talent, among other strategic areas 

Speaking on the fundraise, Shivli Shrivastava and Abhilash Shrivastava, co-founder and director, BetterSpace said, “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.” 

“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.   

BetterSpace is a start-up addressing mental health challenges by offering psychologist-led counseling, workshops, and community engagement programs. Their unique proposition is delivering content and therapy in various local languages, making it accessible to diverse audiences. 

The start-up has its mobile app and self-paced products for mental health improvement. They plan to launch innovative solutions like the Imagi box for children with learning difficulties, Therapy Pods for private therapy spaces in hospitals, and a unique mental wellness game for families.