Clayful
On-demand mental wellness coaching for K-12 students.
| Date | Investors | Amount | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
| investor | €0.0 | round | |
* | N/A | Acquisition | |
| Total Funding | 000k | ||
Clayful provides an on-demand, chat-based mental wellness coaching platform for students, designed to address the growing pediatric mental health crisis. The company partners with K-12 schools and districts, offering its service at no cost to students to help them manage daily stressors, develop resilience, and build life skills. Clayful's business model is based on subscriptions paid by the educational institutions. This approach aims to bridge the gap created by the national shortage of school counselors, providing timely support from vetted and certified coaches who are available within 60 seconds. The platform is multilingual, offering services in 133 languages to ensure accessibility.
The company was founded in November 2021 by CEO Maria Barrera and Chief Experience Officer Melissa Pelochino. Barrera, a Colombian immigrant with a mechanical engineering background from Stanford, was personally motivated by her childhood feelings of isolation. Pelochino drew from her experience as a teacher, where she witnessed firsthand how students' mental health challenges created barriers to learning. Both founders are alumni of the edtech company Nearpod. The inspiration to launch Clayful came after Barrera saw a report on rising suicide rates among young children and decided she needed to be part of the solution.
Clayful's service has three main pillars: on-demand coaching, skill-based programming, and data dashboards that help schools identify trends. In the event of a crisis, coaches follow clear escalation procedures to contact designated school staff or guardians. By November 2023, the company had raised $7 million in a seed funding round led by Reach Capital, with participation from investors like the Google for Startups Latino Founders Fund and OVO Fund. The platform has been used by thousands of students across dozens of schools, and data indicates that students who use Clayful have significantly better attendance rates.
Keywords: student mental health, K-12 wellness, on-demand coaching, chat-based support, edtech, school counseling, student resilience, social-emotional learning, pediatric mental wellness, school-based support, educational technology, student engagement, behavioral health, multilingual coaching, Maria Barrera, Melissa Pelochino, Reach Capital, student support services, digital health for schools, preventative mental healthcare