“If your kids aren’t sleeping, you aren’t sleeping,” says Moshi founder and CEO Ian Chambers.
As mindfulness apps grow increasingly popular among adults, Moshi is looking to bring mindfulness and meditative techniques to children. The app today announced the close of a $12 million Series B financing led by Accel, with participation from Latitude Ventures (the follow-on sister fund to LocalGlobe) and Triplepoint Capital. Bill Roedy, former MTV CEO, also participated in the round.
As part of the deal, Latitude Ventures’ Julia Hawkins will join the Moshi board.
Moshi was originally born out of Mind Candy, which was founded by Michael Acton Smith (founder and CEO of Calm) who created an online entertainment platform for kids called Moshi Monsters. In 2015, Smith stepped down as CEO to go build Calm, and Moshi CEO Ian Chambers stepped in, ultimately developing and launching Moshi in 2017. Mind Candy is now rebranding to Moshi.
Moshi is an app that helps kids sleep. The app offers close to 150 bits of original content, with 80 original 30-minute bedtime stories written and produced entirely by the company. Leading that charge is Steve Cleverley, the app’s Chief Creative Officer and Director of Dozing, a BAFTA-winning writer who authors, composes and produces each bit of content on the app.
Moshi’s bed time stories all follow a similar formula: verse (narration), chorus (song), and the underlying musical score. Each story is crafted with meticulous attention to detail. For example, one of the app’s most popular stories, “Mr. Snoodle’s Twilight Train” has the ‘chuga-chuga-choo-choo’ of train noise in the background throughout the story. That sound effect is timed up to the average resting heart rate of a child, purposefully lulling them into a restful place.
Moshi has also managed to get celebrities involved in the project, with narrations from Goldie Hawn and Sir Patrick Stewart, alongside other voice over actors.
The app offers parents the ability to create their own custom playlist or choose from a themed playlist within the app, such as ‘Busy Little Minds.’
Beyond sleep, Moshi is also offering mindfulness content to be used during the day, whether it’s for timeout or anxiety management or what have you.
Moshi offers a free one-week trial before charging USD$40 annually, with six pieces of content free for anyone.
The company has more than 100,000 subscribers, with 85 million stories played. Chambers told TechCrunch that 70 percent of all stories are completed.
Moshi plans to use the financing to launch new features and content in collaboration with sleep industry experts and scientists, as well as scaling up user acquisition through marketing, advertising and partnerships.
“The reason I get up in the morning to do this, and it sounds a bit cliche, but it’s the feedback,” said Chambers. “It’s the human stories of how we’re helping families to improve how they operate and having a positive impact on their health and wellbeing. That’s what excites us.”