JAKARTA. The increasing psychological and emotional issues and depression cases drive the venture capital firm, East Ventures, to lead the seed funding phase for a mental health service provider start-up, Riliv.
Wilson Cuaca, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of East Ventures, sees Riliv’s services as relevant to current market demands. His company then believes that people can easily access this service. “We are confident that Riliv can help Indonesian people to gain easy access to mental health services. We are glad to be able to promote the mental health industry in Indonesia,” he added in the official release yesterday (20/1).
Other than East Ventures, several other investors that participated in this seed funding are Benson Capital, Sankalpa Ventures, Teja Ventures, and Telkom Indonesia. They entered through the Indigo acceleration program. Additionally, there was also the angel investor Shweta Shrivastava.
Although the amount of investment was not disclosed, Riliv plans to use the funds to extend its service to other more comprehensive sectors. For example, it might reach the public that needs an integrated mental health service and an industry that specifically offers mental health workers services to employees.
The reason behind Riliv’s establishment and mental health service is the 2018 Baseline Health Research, conducted by the Ministry of Health of Indonesia, that showed over 21 million Indonesian citizens experienced emotional and psychological struggles and depression. The same research in 2020 also indicated that mental disorders almost doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic. (AM/ZH)