Meditation for self-healing has been transformative for both physical and mental ailments. Similar to meditation, the controlled use of psychedelics has been shown to be effective in relieving your body of the stress that accumulates in the mind. This LA startup is fusing the two with technology. TRIPP is a digital psychedelics platform that uses XR to immerse users into alternative realities to improve their mental, physical, and emotional state. Available for mobile, Oculus, and Playstation VR, the data-focused company is working towards tailoring its mixed reality offering to individuals to deliver more effective solutions. 2.5M+ sessions have been completed on TRIPP since its launch in 2018. The service starts at an accessible price point – $4.99 per month.
LA TechWatch caught up with CEO and Cofounder Nanea Reeves to learn more about the intersection of innovation and mental health treatments, the company’s strategic plans, recent round of funding, which brings the total funding raised to $15M, and much, much more.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
We raised $11M Series A funding led by Vine Ventures and Mayfield with equal participation from Integrated. We also had support from AlphaBridge Ventures, Beni VC, Berkeley Club, CJ Group, CTR Capital, Evolution, Robert Goldberg, Tony Greenberg, Grit VC, Incisive Ventures, Inflect Health, Iter Investments, Joanna Popper, Jim Dew, Joe Polish, JLS Fund, Lionheart Ventures, Matt Mullenweg, Mike DeLuise, Murtaza Hussain, NeoKuma, Presence Capital, PsyMed Ventures, Redbeard Ventures, Re.Mind Capital, Social Leverage, WhatIf Ventures, Mike Wilson, Mark Zittman, and friends and family who believe in what we are doing.
Tell us about your product or service.
TRIPP is a digital psychedelic platform that fully immerses you into alternate realities to improve your mental and emotional well-being.
We are currently the largest and fastest-growing XR wellness app, and we’re available on mobile and on both the Oculus and PlaystationVR platforms.
What inspired the start of TRIPP?
TRIPP was actually born out of a period of tremendous personal loss for me. I began to rethink my life’s purpose after losing my sister to a drug overdose and my husband and mother to cancer. I knew I wanted to help people, and as a lifelong practitioner of meditation with extensive video game and software development experience, I came up with TRIPP as a way to bring interactive, immersive experiences that combine gameplay mechanics, mindfulness structures, and psychedelic inspired environments to guide users into powerful, awe-inspiring, transformative states.
How is it different?
TRIPP bases all of its design choices on research, and its procedurally generated experiences continue to evolve after the product is live with an active user base. TRIPP has also seen much higher user retention and repeat usage rates than most VR companies, with a 12.9% conversion rate, less than 2% churn, and 54% of April monthly users using TRIPP for four consecutive months or longer.
We are currently scaling our product offering to be “trans-platform” across mobile and VR seamlessly.
TRIPP is currently in several clinical studies in the mental health categories of substance use disorder, depression, and anxiety reduction. We will begin the process of supporting the therapeutic use of psychedelics with digital support layers that enhance those outcomes in a non-invasive, accessible format.
What market are you targeting and how big is it?
Mental health and well-being are top of mind, and it shows — the market values at $244B in the US alone. Every person who is struggling with mental health or looking to improve their daily emotional state of being — no matter the age, gender, race, ethnicity, sex, or experience level with meditation — can use TRIPP. While some stereotype meditative practices as something only women seek out, 67 percent of TRIPP’s user base on Oculus and Playstation platforms last year were men, showing that TRIPP is a truly unique, next-level offering that has very broad demographic appeal globally. However, it should be noted that after the holiday season of 2020, we began to see more users who identify as female as well, which is an exciting transition for expanding the VR market to be more mainstream.
What’s your business model?
We have a subscription model that is currently priced at $4.99 a month.
How has COVID-19 impacted the business?
The pandemic accelerated a need to find supportive solutions that can be delivered at home, especially during months of lockdown and isolation, where people were often unable to access the resources they needed. We heard from many of our users about how TRIPP helped them manage their stress during the pandemic and cope with their emotional states in isolation. In a testament to TRIPP’s success as a tool for mental health, our user base tripled in 2020.
The pandemic accelerated a need to find supportive solutions that can be delivered at home, especially during months of lockdown and isolation, where people were often unable to access the resources they needed. We heard from many of our users about how TRIPP helped them manage their stress during the pandemic and cope with their emotional states in isolation. In a testament to TRIPP’s success as a tool for mental health, our user base tripled in 2020.
What was the funding process like?
Our Series A has been phased over the last two years. It was very challenging, but we are very grateful to have found our tribe of investors who want to use their capital consciously with a goal toward contribution.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
VR was a non-starter for a lot of VCs during the past 24 months. In addition, I found that despite my positive track record as an entrepreneur, there are different performance qualifications imposed on female founders to receive funding. But we were able to overcome those obstacles, and I am excited that we are now able to take TRIPP to the next level.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
Our message and mission to define this new category of digital psychedelics to address mental health really connected with our investors, and I’m very grateful there is a lot of wonderful energy in the community around the impact of psychedelic medicines on mental health. As the fastest growing company in our space, with over 2.5 million sessions streamed to date and over seven clinical trials in progress, our investors are confident in our trajectory.
Our message and mission to define this new category of digital psychedelics to address mental health really connected with our investors, and I’m very grateful there is a lot of wonderful energy in the community around the impact of psychedelic medicines on mental health. As the fastest growing company in our space, with over 2.5 million sessions streamed to date and over seven clinical trials in progress, our investors are confident in our trajectory.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
This new round of funding will help us fuel the platform’s rapid growth by enabling TRIPP to create customized user experiences at scale. We also hope to continue our R&D and power new types of interactive experiences on different devices.
What advice can you offer companies in Los Angeles that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
If you truly believe in what you are doing, persevere. Success and failure are two sides of the same coin. I have found that failure really is just a result of giving up to soon. I highly recommend having advisors, friends, and coaches who will encourage you to keep going. Someone will show up to support you.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
Our generation is on the verge of a massive technology evolution of computing moving from the hand to the head, and we are proud that TRIPP is at the forefront of that movement as the best-in-class wellness application designed for head-mounted devices.
What’s your favorite outdoor activity in LA?
My favorite thing to do in Los Angeles is to take my dog for a walk in lots of different neighborhoods. She especially likes it when an In-N-Out burger is in the near vicinity.
