Meru Health, Inc.
From EverybodyWiki Bios & Wiki
| Private | |
| ISIN | 🆔 |
| Industry | Digital health |
| Founded 📆 | 2016 |
| Founder 👔 | Kristian Ranta, Albert Nazander, Riku Lindholm |
| Headquarters 🏙️ | , San Mateo, California , United States |
Area served 🗺️ | United States |
Key people | Kristian Ranta (CEO) |
| Products 📟 | Meru Health Program (12-week digital intervention) |
| Members | |
Number of employees | |
| 🌐 Website | www |
| 📇 Address | |
| 📞 telephone | |
Meru Health is an American company that delivers smartphone-based programs for depression, anxiety and related conditions. It was founded in Helsinki in 2016 and relocated its headquarters to California after taking part in Y Combinator's Summer 2018 cohort.[1]
History
Entrepreneurs Kristian Ranta, Albert Nazander and Riku Lindholm launched Meru Health after the suicide of Kristian's brother, aiming to widen access to evidence-based mental-health care.[2]
Funding
| Date | Round | Amount | Lead investors | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Seed | US$4.2 million | Bonit Capital; VentureFriends | [3] |
| May 2020 | Series A | US$8.1 million | Foundry Group; Slack Fund | [4] |
| Sep 2021 | Series B | US$38 million (equity and debt) | Industry Ventures; Bold Capital | [2] |
Tracxn estimates total disclosed funding at about US$55 million.[5]
Products
- Meru Health Program – a 12-week intervention that combines cognitive-behavioural therapy, mindfulness practice, nutritional guidance and heart-rate-variability biofeedback, supported by licensed therapists via asynchronous chat.
- A shorter coaching program for stress and burnout.
Clinical outcomes
- A 12-week randomised trial (n = 100) reported a mean 6.4-point drop in PHQ-9 scores and a 5.1-point drop in GAD-7 relative to a wait-list control.[6]
- A 2019 follow-up study (n = 193) found that mean PHQ-9 reductions of 6.67 points were maintained at 12 months.[7]
- The Peterson Health Technology Institute's 2025 assessment classified the program as clinically meaningful, citing improvements in both PHQ-9 and GAD-7.[8]
Peer-reviewed studies
| Year | Study design | Sample size | Primary outcome | Result / effect size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Open-label feasibility | 117 | PHQ-9 | −5.4 points at week 8[9] |
| 2019 | Pre-post, 12-month follow-up | 193 | PHQ-9 | −6.67 points sustained[7] |
| 2022 | Cluster RCT (protocol) | 300* | PHQ-9 | Trial in progress[10] |
| 2024 | Wait-list RCT | 100 | PHQ-9 | Cohen d = 0.80 at 12 weeks[6] |
- planned enrolment
Partnerships and pilots
- Stanford University – the 12-week program is offered at no cost to benefits-eligible employees through university health plans.[11]
- Curebase – collaboration to run a 300-participant clinical trial embedded in primary-care clinics.[12]
- MINES & Associates – partnership announced in 2019 to make the program available to more than 10,000 managed-behavioural-health members.[13]
Media coverage
National outlets, including TechCrunch, Forbes, Fierce Healthcare and MobiHealthNews, have reported on the company's funding rounds, clinical results and commercial agreements.[2][4][14]
See also
References
- ↑ "Meru Health". Y Combinator. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Azevedo, Mary Ann (23 September 2021). "Meru Health secures $38 million in equity and debt for online mental-health platform". TechCrunch. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
- ↑ "Meru Health raises $4.2 million seed round". TechCrunch. 20 February 2018. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lovett, Laura (13 May 2020). "Digital mental-health company Meru snags $8.1 million in Series A funds". MobiHealthNews. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
- ↑ "Meru Health — company profile". Tracxn. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Forman-Hoffman, Valerie L. (2024). "Therapist-supported digital mental-health intervention for depressive symptoms: a randomised clinical trial". Journal of Affective Disorders. 349: 494–501. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2024.01.057. PMID 38211747 Check
|pmid=value (help). - ↑ 7.0 7.1 Economides, Marcos (2019). "Long-term outcomes of a therapist-supported smartphone intervention for depression and anxiety". JMIR mHealth and uHealth. 7 (8): e14284. doi:10.2196/14284. PMC 6733157 Check
|pmc=value (help). PMID 31452521. - ↑ "Virtual solutions for depression and anxiety". Peterson Health Technology Institute. 20 May 2025. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
- ↑ Ranta, Kristian (2018). "Feasibility of a therapist-supported mobile intervention for depression and anxiety". PLOS ONE. 13 (12): e0208224. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0208224. PMC 6277107. PMID 30507969.
- ↑ "Curebase partners with Meru Health for three-year mental-health trial". Fierce Biotech. 22 September 2022. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
- ↑ "Meru Health". Stanford University. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
- ↑ "Curebase & Meru Health unite for app-based mental-health trial". Pharmaphorum. 21 September 2022. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
- ↑ "Meru Health and MINES & Associates announce collaboration for improved mental-health care access" (Press release). BioSpace. 6 June 2019. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
- ↑ Beavins, Emma (20 May 2025). "Virtual depression and anxiety programs prove effective but costs vary, PHTI finds". Fierce Healthcare. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
External links
This article "Meru Health" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Meru Health. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
