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Meditation was once seen as a new-age practice done mostly by yogis. But sometime over the past few years, meditation became more mainstream. Many would say that鈥檚 in large part thanks to companies like .

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Founded in 2012, the San Francisco-based company鈥檚 meditation app has become wildly popular. The startups boasts of more than 40 million downloads and 1 million active subscribers. To help accelerate its already impressive growth, Calm announced today it has closed on an $88 million Series B round that propels it into unicorn status with a $1 billion valuation. This follows a that closed last June.

led the latest round, which also included participation from (CAA) and existing investors and actor 鈥檚 .

I interviewed and , both co founders and co-CEOs at Calm, to learn more about their plans for the latest round and discovered a surprising fact: Calm saw its revenue grow four-fold in 2018 to $80 million from $20 million in 2017, and it is also cash-flow positive and has been for several years, according to the pair.

That鈥檚 a rarity in today鈥檚 startup world. Calm is also currently on a $150 million annual revenue run rate. So why has a profitable company raised two rounds of venture capital in less than eight months? The answer is simple, according to Tew.

鈥淭PG are very experienced investors and we decided to raise more capital to move faster. We want to expand international growth, make acquisitions, build out our content library, grow our team, and raise more awareness for this category of wellness and mental health,鈥� he told SA国际传媒 News. 鈥淔or years, mental health was something people didn鈥檛 really talk about it. It was in the shadows. But now there鈥檚 light. Being a unicorn in this category, we think, is a significant milestone.鈥�

[bctt tweet=”For years, mental health was something people didn鈥檛 really talk about it. It was in the shadows. But now there鈥檚 light. Being a unicorn in this category, we think, is a significant milestone.” via=”no”]

Indeed, wellness is estimated to be a , according to the Global Wellness Institute. And, according to the CDC, U.S. meditation practice to 14.2 percent in 2017 from 4.1 percent in 2012. Calm also aims to help insomniacs with getting some sleep with its Sleep Stories鈥攚hich it describes as bedtime stories for adults read by celebrities such as Matthew McConaughey, Stephen Fry, and Leona Lewis. For fun, it even last year for having a soothing voice read the EU鈥檚 GDPR legislation.

鈥淐alm is changing the way people think about their health and their mindset, responding to a global demand for wellness solutions,鈥� said TPG Partner 聽in a written statement. 鈥淐alm stands out for its potential to succeed in a rapidly expanding health and wellness industry, and we鈥檙e excited about their prospects for growth.鈥�

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奥丑别苍听 and came up with the idea for Calm, they shared a house in London and had practiced meditation for years.

鈥淧ersonally, I had started meditating as a teen and found it super beneficial,鈥� Tew said. 鈥淧eople thought I was weird and 鈥榳oo-woo,鈥� but I was always keen to make it more accessible, and the Internet seemed like a great way to distribute a product that could do that.鈥�

External factors were also at play, he added, with the world only 鈥済etting more stressful鈥� and the mobile revolution taking place.

At the time, Acton Smith was running a gaming company called , and found himself feeling overwhelmed with life鈥檚 pressures.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 when a light bulb went off with me and Alex,鈥� he said, 鈥渁nd we began the effort to make meditation more accessible, simpler and relatable to folks in the 21st century.鈥�

Today, Calm is a team of 50, having operated what the pair describes in a 鈥渓ean鈥� way. Still, that鈥檚 up from 20 one year ago and nine two years prior.

Looking ahead, the company is looking to expand globally. Calm recently launched in Germany and in Latin America (with the exception of Brazil).

鈥淐urrently, Calm is very big in the U.S. but we have ambitions to take it everywhere,鈥� Acton Smith told SA国际传媒 News. 鈥淲e want to bring it to many more languages in the world. And we want to do that rapidly鈥�. And while we are going to hire across the business, we plan to still be the scrappy lean startup we are already.鈥�

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