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Calm

Calm

A health technology start-up based in San Francisco. It was founded in 2012 by Alex Tew and Michael Acton Smith and produces a mobile application for sleep, relaxation, and meditation.

Calm is a San Francisco-based mobile application company that provides wellness services which are aimed to help users manage anxiety, lower stress and sleep better. The app can be accessed via mobile application or website and includes meditations, bedtime stories, music, sounds that play the noise of scenic places, videos for wellness and stretches, and master classes.

Product

Users can download the app for free and have access to a limited amount of the app's services. If they want to upgrade to a premium account, they can have a free one-week trial of the app and then it can be bought with various plans depending on the duration of the desired plan.

Meditation

Calm has various meditation topics that users can choose. Topics include but are not limited to sleep, anxiety, beginners, self-care, inner peace, and relationships. There are also meditations for children ages three to 17. Premium users have access to a special mediation that is updated daily.

Sleep Stories

Calm provides Sleep Stories, which are tales read by well-known voices such as Matthew McConaughey, Stephen Fry, Leona Lewis, and Bob Ross. The stories are intended to help people fall into a deep sleep and cover stories such as Beauty and the Beast and The Lost Grimm Fairy Tale.

Music and Scenes

The music feature on the app is focused around music that can calm or focus the user. Users can pick songs from categories such as sleep, soundscapes, lullabies, and focus. Songs can include nature sounds and white noise. The music varies in length and can last anywhere between three minutes up to an hour or more.

There is also a scenes feature that plays the sounds that one may hear in different scenes from around the world. Some scenes include "fireplace", where users can hear the low crackle of a fire; "tropical beach", where users can hear waves crashing on the shore; and "summer meadow", where users can hear insects chirping and birds in the distance.

Calm Body

Calm Body includes guided video lessons of gentle stretching and mindful movement claimed to release tension and recharge the mind. Videos cover stretches that can be done in the morning, at night, and before or after a workout. There is also an introduction video that explains this feature of the app.

Master Class

The Master Class feature in intended to teach the user about specific wellness topics through several videos on the app. The leaders of the master classes are experts in their fields, ranging from clinical psychologists to NBA stars to award-winning authors.

Partnerships

Calm is partnered with XpresSpa at major US airports, such as John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, Los Angeles International Airport, and Philadelphia International Airport. Users can go to XpresSpa and receive a free luggage tag and ten minute relaxation lounger massage by showing their app to one of the store's employees. Calm products are available at XpresSpa for purchase as well.

Additional Products

Outside of digital offerings, the company sells a sleep mist designed to spray on a pillow to accompany the bedtime story. A book called “Calm” was published by co-founder Michael Acton Smith in 2016 and he told CNBC that other physical products such as books, clothing and potentially a Calm Hotel were part of the company’s vision.

Initiatives

Calm offers a discount of 50% to companies that would like to provide the app to their teams. A company, organization, or group of five or more individuals can purchase the app by selecting the number of people who will be using it. Calm will send a landing page to the company, which can then send it to the team and use the subscription for one year.

There is also an initiative called "Calm Health", which is intended to be used by healthcare practitioners and their clients. It consists of a free subscription for one year for the practitioner and a one month premium trail for their clients. It is available to doctors, dentists, psychologist, and other professionals in the health field. Healthcare practitioners can fill out a form online to sign up for the service and receive more information.

The Calm Schools Initiative allows for any teacher anywhere in the world to access the app for free and share it in their classrooms. The stated goal of this initiative is to onboard 100,000 schools in 2019, intending to reach one million students. Teachers can have access to Calm's expanding children's mediation library and other wellness tools. In order to become a part of this initiative, teachers can visit the company's website and fill out a form. Upon completion and submission of the form, the teacher will be contacted by Calm for further instructions regarding the onboarding process.

Timeline

December 8, 2020
Calm raises $75M more at $2B valuation

Lightspeed Venture Partners led the investment, which also saw participation from Insight, TPG and Salesforce CEO and Marc Benioff, among others.

July 1, 2019
Calm raises $27 million more in Series B extension round

The company raised an additional $27 million from Lightspeed.

July 1, 2019
Calm raises a $27,000,000 series B round.
February 6, 2019
Calm Raises $88M and becomes a unicorn

Calm raises $88 million in a Series B financing, valuing the company at $1 billion USD. The funding round was led by TPG Growth and also included participation from Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and previous investors Insight Venture Partners and Sound Ventures. The round at the time brought the total funding to $116M.

February 2019
Calm raises a $88,000,000 series B round from CAA, Insight Partners, Sound Ventures and TPG Growth.
June 20, 2018
Calm raises a $27,000,000 series A round.
March 26, 2018
$25 million+ is invested in Calm

Insight Venture Partners invests more than $25 million into the company.

January 3, 2018
Apple names Calm as Best of 2018

The app is named as one of the best self-care mobile applications.

2017
Calm is named App of the Year 2017

Apple names the app the 2017 iPhone app of the year.

June 18, 2014
$578,000 is raised in a seed round

Calm raises more than half a million dollars from investors such as Angellist.

Funding Rounds

Patents

Further Resources

Title
Author
Link
Type
Date

Are AI fairytales the future?

BBC News

Web

April 18, 2018

Can't Sleep? Let Bob Ross Help You Find Some Happy Little Zzzs

Laura M. Holson

Web

June 12, 2018

Join The Calm Team

May 21, 2019

Michael Acton Smith: 'We want to show meditation is common sense'

Ian Tucker

Web

October 8, 2017

Relaxation app Calm raises $88 million, valuing it $1 billion

February 6, 2019

News

Title
Author
Date
Publisher
Description
Jackie Annett
August 19, 2021
Express.co.uk
HURRY, there are only three days left to claim a free pint of beer or gin and tonic at your local pub. Here's all you need to know.
By AHMAD SEIR, TAMEEM AKHGAR, KATHY GANNON and JON GAMBRELL
August 17, 2021
AP NEWS
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Calm returned to Kabul's international airport Tuesday after a chaotic day saw hundreds of Afghans fleeing the Taliban rush the runway and hang off a U.S. Air Force flight, with several plunging to the deaths in chaos that killed at least seven people.
Mike Butcher
August 4, 2021
TechCrunch
More than one smartphone app startup has tried to convince you that by using their app you will miraculously stave off the ravages of age and flab. All I need to do is flip open my phone and real off a few: Gyroscope, MyFitnessPal, Welltory, ActivityTracker, SleepCycle. The list goes on. You name it, there's [...]
Mike Butcher
August 4, 2021
TechCrunch
More than one smartphone app startup has tried to convince you that by using their app you will miraculously stave off the ravages of age and flab. All I need to do is flip open my phone and real off a few: Gyroscope, MyFitnessPal, Welltory, ActivityTracker, SleepCycle. The list goes on. You name it, there's [...]
Alexei Oreskovic
June 5, 2021
Business Insider
In this week's edition of Insider Tech we look at Twitter's efforts to develop a premium subscription service, and at Facebook's big Trump news.
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References

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