BetterYou raises $6M to help employees and students develop healthy habits

The app measures how they spend their time, links it to specific goals, and helps them achieve them

Something is shifting in how people are viewing social media, especially when it comes to children: currently, 33 states are in a legal battle with Meta over accusations of designing, “psychologically manipulative product features to induce young users’ compulsive and extended use.” Meanwhile, earlier this year Seattle Public Schools sued social media companies, including Facebook, Instagram, Alphabet, Google, TikTok, and Snap over youth mental health.

BetterYou wants to do the opposite: it's an AI-based “healthy habits companion” startup with the goal of being a positive force against technology addiction and services.

"When you ask people what they do to improve their health, you get a wide variety of answers – talk to others, work out, get more sleep. When you ask those same people what’s getting in their way, you don’t get many answers. You get one: time. People say they don’t have enough hours in the day to do the things they want to do," BetterYou CEO and co-founder Sean Higgins told VatorNews.

"BetterYou is a healthy habits companion that measures how you spend your time in the day, links it to specific goals, and helps you find more time in the week to do the things you want to do."

Now the company will be able to grow its userbase thanks to a $6 million Series A round announced this week. The round, led by Capital Midwest with additional funding from Mairs & Power, Great North Ventures, North Coast Ventures, and NelNet, brings BetterYou's total funding to $9 million. 

When using Better You, users set one or more wellness goals including getting more sleep, reading more, or increasing socialization; once they do that, BetterYou automatically tracks progress without the need for manual entry.

The company works with employers and schools, typically of at least 50 people, to help their employees and students make the most of their day. The company has partnered with several major companies and universities including H&R Block, Amway, Michigan State University, and Cleveland State University to improve employee and student wellness.

Both employees and students are already seeing an effect: during a recent BetterYou steps challenge, H&R Block employees amassed 945,000 steps in just three days. On the university side, BetterYou partnered with Stanford University to run a randomized control study, the results of which showed that students who used BetterYou got 32 minutes more sleep and 984 more steps each day than students who used a different wellness app.

Now that it has this new funding, the company plans to accelerate growth in key areas of its business including additional sales, marketing, and software hires, growing its team from 25 to 32 people, while also continuing to refining its mobile app user experience. 

"We were just awarded a patent for contextually nudging technology in July. It allows us to send reminders if a user is on their phone, if they’ll be there for a while, and if there’s something else they’d rather be doing," Higgens said. 

"We have a new feature rolling out soon called the BetterYou Rewind that allows users to see a snapshot of their wellness journey over the course of the year. This provides a fun and easy way to see progress, share wins with fellow users, and boost morale for the year to come."