MiNDCAFE

MiNDCAFE, operated by its parent company Atommerce, is a comprehensive mental healthcare platform headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. Founded in 2015 by CEO Kyu-Tae Kim, the company emerged from his personal experiences. While studying at UCLA, Kim benefited from the university's counseling services to cope with stress, which inspired him to create a more accessible mental health solution in South Korea, where a significant stigma around seeking help existed. His goal was to leverage IT to help people recover from mental and emotional distress.

The platform initiated in 2016 as an anonymous online community where users could share their concerns and receive peer support, a strategy designed to lower the barrier to entry for mental healthcare. This has since evolved into a multi-faceted service offering. The business operates on a hybrid B2C and B2B/B2G model. For individual consumers, MiNDCAFE provides non-face-to-face professional psychological counseling via text, phone, and video, connecting users with vetted therapists. To address the limitations of virtual-only interaction, the company expanded into physical locations, opening its first in-person counseling center in 2020 and now operating multiple directly-managed centers and a network of partner clinics.

Revenue is generated through these direct-to-consumer counseling services and a robust Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for corporate and government clients. This B2B segment serves major organizations like Samsung, Naver, and the Seoul Metropolitan Government, providing mental wellness programs for their employees. The company has also broadened its service portfolio to include life coaching, group therapy programs, and, following the acquisition of the 'Kokkiri' app, mindfulness and meditation content. A key area of development is a digital therapeutic based on an AI chatbot, which has undergone clinical trials and aims to offer personalized cognitive-behavioral therapy. Having secured approximately $28 million in total funding from investors including Samsung Venture Investment, Hashed, and Lotte Healthcare, the company has also expanded its operations into Japan.

Keywords: mental healthcare, digital therapeutics, EAP, employee assistance program, online counseling, teletherapy, mental wellness, corporate wellness, psychological counseling, Atommerce, Kyu-Tae Kim, cognitive-behavioral therapy, AI chatbot, hybrid healthcare, mental health platform, South Korea, Seoul, Naver, Samsung, meditation app, B2B mental health