This four-parent startup has already aided over 25,000 children in developing their mental strength to succeed in the competitive world

PeakMind is a digital platform with the mission of empowering students by cultivating in them the traits of competitiveness, performance motivation, optimism, mindfulness, and mental toughness necessary for competitive success and holistic development.

The Bangalore-based startup was founded by Neeraj Kumar, Manish Chowdhary, Parth Sharma & Sandeep Gautam.

The Parents' PeakMind

The three co-founders realised as parents that their kids needed mental health care as they studied for Boards and other competitive exams.

“Looking closely at the world around us today, we feel that not just teenagers, but children in general are under severe stress of growth, expectations, and aspirations. In terms of mental health and well-being, they are in an alarming situation,” says Neeraj Kumar, Co-founder and CEO, PeakMind to Yourstory.

He continues by saying that this is especially evident in the segment where they begin preparing for competitive exams.

Thus Neeraj, Manish, Sandeep, and Parth created PeakMind, a digital platform specialising in student mental health in 2020. It aims to prepare students for competitive success by giving them skills like stress management and character traits like optimism and mindfulness.

The startup, situated in Bengaluru, has both a B2B and a B2C business model. To assist candidates for NEET and JEE, it has worked with coaching institutions like the Aakash Institute and Sri Chaitanya. Up till now, the platform has worked with about 25,000 students.

Two distinct programs were developed by PeakMind to cater to the needs of students in various age groups. The first is called Compete, and as its name implies, it is geared toward students who are beginning or are in the middle of their road toward taking competitive tests. The second one, Flourish, is geared toward students in grades 7 to 10.

The Startup's Working Model

Additionally, the startup has designed a test to assess students' abilities across five domains: productivity, mental toughness, memory and focus, social connectivity, positive attitude, and emotional wellness.

The results of this assessment will be shared with the students via WhatsApp. Counsellors (trained in Behaviour Science, Applied Psychology, Positive Psychology, and Performance Coaching) are made available to students in the Compete program to assist them with any problems.

Neeraj reminds Yourstory about the last ten years have seen a boom in startups, which require a variety of talents beyond technological proficiency. These include adaptation, collaboration, anxiety management, stress management, resolving conflict, and relationship leveraging. No educational system imparts these lessons to us.

Teenage years are the optimum period when a child begins to recognise and experience their emotions, therefore they wanted to determine when is the best time to begin working toward this.

Counselors can be reached via WhatsApp, and students can schedule private Zoom meetings. Additionally, students have access to coaching sessions and webinars where they can learn skills like stress management. 

Students who participate in the Flourish program get access to a year-long, specialized program for knowledge and skill development that focuses on the "PRIME" life skills of productivity, resilience, intelligence, mindfulness, and emotional well-being.

This program is offered through exercises, assessments, and group live sessions that are guided by a planned curriculum.

They found out that the most common problems harming students' mental health are persistently negative thoughts, ongoing worry, anger, mood fluctuations, exhaustion, low self-worth, loneliness, sadness, and suicidal thoughts.

PeakMind additionally provides more than 50 habit-building tools and trackers, including, among others, SMART Goals, Study Schedule, Worry Postponement, and Productivity BINGO. Additionally, it offers carefully crafted guided visualisation movies based on 30 common situations that kids face every day. The startup offers more than 50 podcasts, workshops with instructors, tests, and evaluations.

The company charges Rs 499 for each Zoom session and Rs 249 for a seven-day coaching programme over WhatsApp, despite the evaluation being free.

Future Plans

Startups focused on mental health have increased during the last few years. The likes of Mom's Belief, Wysa, AUMHUM, Work in Progress, Emotionally. in, and Lissun, among others, are direct and indirect competitors of PeakMind. In 2021, the startup raised $300K from angel investors.

It now intends to raise additional funds over the following year. PeakMind is currently trying to increase its market share in Singapore as well as India and the Middle East. Additionally, it wants to strengthen its relationships with schools.