$1.3 M Investment to Grow Healium
StoryUP, the makers of a virtual anxiety management product called Healium, just closed a $1.3M oversubscribed Series A investment round. The Missouri startup, incubated at the Missouri Innovation Center, will use the funds to grow Healium, the world’s first interactive immersive media channel powered by wearables. Healium’s virtual and augmented reality apps are used worldwide as drugless solutions for the self-management of anxiety, addiction, sleep, and pain.
Anxiety is the cause of 60% of all illness and disease. Healium’s beautiful experiences are designed to quickly downshift the nervous system and allow the user to escape or control their current reality. Healium’s VR and AR apps can be powered by optional consumer wearables using either a consumer EEG headband or the user’s smartwatch. Power users can control Healium with three brain states including quiet mind, open heart, and focus. With 225 million wearables in the market currently generating 2D data dashboards, Healium’s patented technology is transforming how users interact with their biometric data by allowing them to control stories by shifting their brain patterns or lowering their heart rate.
In addition to the equity investments, the company also announced the addition of Sean Rad, Founder of Tinder, as a product advisor. Rad built the top-grossing non-gaming app in the world. Rad joins clinical advisor Dr. Craig Cheifetz, Regional Dean Virginia Commonwealth School of Medicine, and advisory member, Noah Falstein, former Chief of Gaming at Google.
This is the fifth national group in as many months to recognize the women-owned small business. In 2019, Apple selected StoryUP for its summer Entrepreneur Cohort. The company secured a licensing deal that puts its stress management content on more than 20 airlines for passengers of long haul flights. The company won pitch competitions at CES, the world’s largest technology show, took home a first-place finish at SXSW in XR, and was nominated for a Webby for Best Use of Augmented Reality. Most recently, Nueterra Capital selected Healium as one of six companies “destined to disrupt healthcare”.
Three published studies in Frontiers in Psychology, Journal of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, and the Journal of Neuroregulation showed Healium’s drugless kits reduced anxiety, improved mood, and increased feelings of positivity in as little as four minutes.
For more information on Healium’s impact on emotional wellbeing or the company’s social purpose with virtual Honor Flights for Veterans, please visit tryhealium.com or email hello@story-up.com.
Investors include: MO Innovation Center Digital Venture Fund, Fisher Properties, MO Technology Corporation, Centennial Investors, Nueterra Capital, Dan Knight, Debby Clausen, Peggy Mayer, Nancy Gion, Connie Pugh, and Panther Financial Group
With mentorship from: Women in XR Fund, Mizzou VMS & MO Innovation Center, Apple, DOD Innovator Cohort, Mizzou Entrepreneur Legal Clinic, Columbia REDI, Enterprise Center of Johnson County, Launch KC | Nueterra Health Accelerator, and SXSW
