Theodoric Chew, cofounder and CEO of Intellect, a Singapore-based mental wellness startup.
Singapore-based Intellect has raised an additional $10 million in a Series A extension led by Tiger Global, doubling the total for the investment round to $20 million, which will be used to support the mental health startup’s expansion plans across the Asia-Pacific region.
K3 Ventures, the venture capital firm founded by Kuok Meng Xiong, a grandson of Malaysia’s richest person Robert Kuok, also joined the investment round along with new investors JAFCO Asia, Singtel Innov8 and PERSOL Holdings. Existing investors Insignia Ventures Partners and HOF Capital also participated.
Theodoric Chew—who was featured in this year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Asia—founded Intellect in 2019 as a digital platform for mental wellness that connects people to therapists online. The timing was prescient as demand for the app skyrocketed during the Covid-19 pandemic. The company now has over 3 million users and counts Foodpanda, Merck, Philips and telecom giant Singtel among its key corporate customers, providing Intellect's services as part of their employee benefit programs.
“Intellect’s mission is normalize mental health and shift the culture towards more open conversations about personal wellbeing, ultimately removing the stigma attached,” Chew, 26, who dropped out of Raffles Institution, one of Singapore’s top junior colleges, a decade ago after battling anxiety, said in a statement. “We are fortunate Intellect is able to not just defend, but heavily double down on our work to change how mental healthcare is done for all of Asia Pacific. Our goal is play a leading role in solving the region’s mental health crisis and we’re truly excited to be at the forefront of driving this change.”
There has been an increased incidence of burnout among workers in Asia Pacific in the past two years following the widespread disruptions brought on by lockdowns and other restrictions aimed at battling the pandemic. A survey conducted by Intellect at the height of the pandemic last year showed 84% of workers across the Asia Pacific said they experienced high levels of exhaustion and 88% were disengaged from work.
“With its tech-empowered, end-to-end holistic approach, Intellect is poised to become a leader in offering access to mental healthcare across Asia,” said Jay Chen, partner at New York-based Tiger Global. “We are excited to partner with the Intellect team as it builds a flexible, responsive and modern system for a critical component of healthcare.”
