LGBTQ-focused mental health-tech startup Evolve raises pre-Seed funding

Evolve, an India-based mental health startup focused on the LGBTQ+ community, has announced raising about $375,000 in pre-Seed funding round.

According to the announcement, the funding round was led by Rajesh Ranavat, executive director at Fund Strategic Holdings, and saw participation from prominent angel investors including Ankit Mehrotra and Nikhil Bakshi (founders, Dineout) as well as senior global executives from Meta and McKinsey.

Co-founded by Anshul Kamath and Rohan Arora in 2020, Evolve has over 2,50,000 users globally and was awarded the Best App for Personal Growth in 2021 by Google Play. The app and its proprietary interface provide users with a virtual safe space along with personalised, evidence-based interventions to improve their mental health.

Evolve is the only mental health app at a global level that is LGBTQ+ first. Even as India celebrates the 4th anniversary of Section 377 being struck down and multiple other countries including Singapore having recently decriminalised homosexuality – the LGBTQ+ community is one of the most underserved segments when it comes to their mental health needs.

Over the last year, the team has spent a considerable amount of time working with queer affirmative therapists, members of the community as well as professors carrying out research in this space to truly understand the needs of the community.

“Members of the LGBTQIA+ community are 3 to 4 times as likely to experience serious mental illness. We are proud to be one of the first companies globally solving for the needs of the community and our user growth and love are testaments to the quality of our offerings so far,” said founder Anshul Kamath.

The startup plans to use the funds to expand the core team at Evolve and invest in building a world-class product that continues to provide individual and collective safe spaces for users around the world.

“In a short period of time, Evolve has built a very compelling mental health app which operates totally on an interactive AI platform enabling it to scale up at a global level. The early success in terms of adoption by more than 200,000 users globally and recognition by Google Play as one of the top personal growth apps puts it in good stead for its next stage of growth,” said lead investor Rajesh Ranavat.