ThatMate, a Pune based sexual and mental wellness app for teens globally has raised $140,000in angel funding from Rebalance Angel Community and a clutch of angels. The startup has also received investment under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)’s TIDE 2.0 scheme.
Premanshu Singh (CEO, Paytm Insurance), Devendra Rane (SVP - Technology and Engineering, Paytm), Kanti Prabha (Co-founder and COO, Sirion Labs), Devadatta Sahoo (Co-founder, NetTantra Technology), Vivek Lodha (CEO, JVS Foods), Shruti Lakkaraju, Ashish Tickoo, Yash Gupta, Aditya Singh, and AIC Banasthali and its angels Krishna Mehra, Supriya Kumari, and Mamta Nehra are the angels that participated in the funding round.
ThatMate was founded by Madhavi Jadhav and Nishant Neeraj in 2020. The startup is helping bridge the gap in the sexual and mental health space for teens globally. Since its launch ThatMate claims to have gained significant momentum across India and has also partnered with the Jharkhand government and UNICEF to help six lakh students in the state.
Speaking about the motivation behind founding the startup, Madhavi Jadhav, Co-founder and CEO, ThatMate, said, “Growing up, I went through a range of challenges, both personal and social. Life would’ve been easier if I had someone to talk to without hesitation or triggering shame. We’re creating a safe space for teens designed to educate and support teens through self-discovery specific to their location, age, and culture. In fact, joining Rebalance Accelerator helped us reimagine the scale and impact of the problem we were solving offline, which pushed us to launch the app.”
ThatMate’s Android app guides teens through complex topics such as puberty, relationships, self-image concerns, peer pressure, and stress, among others. The startup has also designed an AI-powered interactive bot Bolo that answers all the questions teens cannot ask anyone.
ThatMate was part of Rebalance Accelerator’s Inaugural Cohort in 2019.Aishwarya Malhi and Vikas Kumar, Co-founders, Rebalance, said, “There are a few existing apps that tackle sexual and mental wellness, but none particularly focus on adolescents. With over 1.2 billion teens worldwide, the opportunity to shape young girls and boys beyond academics is huge! What we loved about ThatMate was that they’re choosing to prevent impending issues right from the onset rather than just offer remedies.”
“The app thoughtfully imparts knowledge through interactive comic books, gamified user journeys, knowledge quizzes, and age-appropriate unlocks based on the user’s behavioural insights,” said Nishant Neeraj, Co-founder, and CTO, ThatMate.
