Meru Health

Meru Health, Inc.

Company type	Private
Industry	Digital health
Founded	2016
Founder	Kristian Ranta, Albert Nazander, Riku Lindholm
Headquarters	San Mateo, California , United States
Area served	United States
Key people	Kristian Ranta (CEO)
Products	Meru Health Program (12-week digital intervention)
Website	www.meruhealth.com

Meru Health is an American company that delivers smartphone-based programmes for depression, anxiety and related conditions. It was founded in Helsinki in 2016 and relocated its headquarters to California after taking part in Y Combinator's Summer 2018 cohort. ^[1]

History

Entrepreneurs Kristian Ranta, Albert Nazander and Riku Lindholm launched Meru Health after the suicide of Kristian's brother, aiming to widen access to evidence-based mental-health care. ^[2]

Funding

Date	Round	Amount	Lead investors	Source
2018	Seed	US$4.2 million	Bonit Capital; VentureFriends	[3]
May 2020	Series A	US$8.1 million	Foundry Group; Slack Fund	[4]
Sep 2021	Series B	US$38 million (equity and debt)	Industry Ventures; Bold Capital	[2]

Tracxn estimates total disclosed funding at about US$55 million. ^[5]

Products

• Meru Health Program – a 12-week intervention that combines cognitive-behavioural therapy, mindfulness practice, nutritional guidance and heart-rate-variability biofeedback, supported by licensed therapists via asynchronous chat.
• A shorter coaching programme for stress and burnout.

Clinical outcomes

• A 12-week randomised trial (n = 100) reported a mean 6.4-point drop in PHQ-9 scores and a 5.1-point drop in GAD-7 relative to a wait-list control. ^[6]
• A 2019 follow-up study (n = 193) found that mean PHQ-9 reductions of 6.67 points were maintained at 12 months. ^[7]
• The Peterson Health Technology Institute's 2025 assessment classified the programme as clinically meaningful, citing improvements in both PHQ-9 and GAD-7. ^[8]

Peer-reviewed studies

Year	Study design	Sample size	Primary outcome	Result / effect size
2018	Open-label feasibility	117	PHQ-9	−5.4 points at week 8 [9]
2019	Pre-post, 12-month follow-up	193	PHQ-9	−6.67 points sustained [7]
2022	Cluster RCT (protocol)	300*	PHQ-9	Trial in progress [10]
2024	Wait-list RCT	100	PHQ-9	Cohen d = 0.80 at 12 weeks [6]

• planned enrolment

Partnerships and pilots

• Stanford University – the 12-week programme is offered at no cost to benefits-eligible employees through university health plans. ^[11]
• Curebase – collaboration to run a 300-participant clinical trial embedded in primary-care clinics. ^[12]
• MINES & Associates – partnership announced in 2019 to make the programme available to more than 10,000 managed-behavioural-health members. ^[13]

Media coverage

National outlets, including TechCrunch, Forbes, Fierce Healthcare and MobiHealthNews, have reported on the company's funding rounds, clinical results and commercial agreements. ^{[2] [4] [14]}

See also

• Digital therapeutics
• Telehealth
• Mental health in the United States

References

1. "Meru Health". Y Combinator. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
2. Azevedo, Mary Ann (23 September 2021). "Meru Health secures $38 million in equity and debt for online mental-health platform". TechCrunch. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
3. "Meru Health raises $4.2 million seed round". TechCrunch. 20 February 2018. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
4. Lovett, Laura (13 May 2020). "Digital mental-health company Meru snags $8.1 million in Series A funds". MobiHealthNews. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
5. "Meru Health — company profile". Tracxn. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
6. Forman-Hoffman, Valerie L. (2024). "Therapist-supported digital mental-health intervention for depressive symptoms: a randomised clinical trial". Journal of Affective Disorders. 349: 494–501. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2024.01.057 . PMID   38211747.
7. Economides, Marcos (2019). "Long-term outcomes of a therapist-supported smartphone intervention for depression and anxiety". JMIR mHealth and uHealth. 7 (8): e14284. doi: 10.2196/14284 . PMC   6733157 . PMID   31452521.
8. "Virtual solutions for depression and anxiety". Peterson Health Technology Institute. 20 May 2025. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
9. Ranta, Kristian (2018). "Feasibility of a therapist-supported mobile intervention for depression and anxiety". PLOS ONE. 13 (12): e0208224. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0208224 . PMC   6277107 . PMID   30507969.
10. "Curebase partners with Meru Health for three-year mental-health trial". Fierce Biotech. 22 September 2022. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
11. "Meru Health". Stanford University. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
12. "Curebase & Meru Health unite for app-based mental-health trial". Pharmaphorum. 21 September 2022. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
13. "Meru Health and MINES & Associates announce collaboration for improved mental-health care access" (Press release). BioSpace. 6 June 2019. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
14. Beavins, Emma (20 May 2025). "Virtual depression and anxiety programmes prove effective but costs vary, PHTI finds". Fierce Healthcare. Retrieved 22 May 2025.

External links

• Official website