During the pandemic, Tita Ardiati and Bayu Puspito Bhaskoro began developing life coaching content to support employees who were increasingly burned out by working from home. They got a good enough reception that they decided to develop their product into an employee assistance program called Mindtera, which now serves more than 10,000 employees in Indonesia.
Today, the startup announced total seed funding of $850,000 led by East Ventures, with participation from Seedstars International Ventures and angel investors.
Bhaskoro told TechCrunch that the startup is focused on B2B markets, including mid- to large enterprises. It also provides a self-service platform for small- to medium enterprises. Its main sectors are finance, consulting and retail, and its typical client has more than 200 employees.
Mindtera aims to support employees with challenges related to their work, and also in their personal lives like finances, family and relationships. Companies, on the other hand, get insights about what employees want and how to create a more engaged and productive workforce.
Mindtera includes two platforms. The first, called Mindtera Pro, is an analytics dashboard and app with assessment tools to collect employee feedback, which is then used for insights about the well-being and engagement of a company’s workforce. This includes surveys that let employees participate anonymously or use their names. They can provide suggestions, criticism and other opinions about their work and employer.
The second, Mindtera Plus, connects companies to coaching and development consultants for help with management and workplace culture issues. Employers have the option of either subscribing to Mindtera Plus for a continuous action plan, or working with consultants on demand. Mindtera Plus uses internal consultants, external certified consultants and curated partners, who provide strategic program plans and monthly or quarterly progress reports for clients.
Bhaskoro said Mindtera’s main competitors are EAPs based outside of Indonesia, and traditional workforce consulting agencies. The main way that Mindtera differentiates is by giving employers real-time monitoring on how engaged employees are, instead of making them wait for reports. Mindtera Pro also gives them more visibility into spending on activities, vendors or platforms that they use as interventions to improve productivity and performance.
The newunding will be used to expand Mindtera’s B2B platform, with the goal of becoming Indonesia’s top employee assistance program platform.
In a statement about the funding, Seedstars International Ventures general partner Patricia Sosrodjojo, said, “The world has seen a major shift in the understanding of how integral mental health and well-being are for businesses, but there is still much work to be done in order to effectively address this. Mindtera is at the forefront of foundational changes in the workplace and has been able to rapidly expand its reach in Indonesia’s HR space.”