Nguvu health, a Nigerian startup provides on-demand mental therapy sessions to Africans anywhere in the world through their smartphones. The company was established in March 2020. It makes use of Android and iOS apps to connect users with licensed therapists through video calls or app messaging to provide easy access to affordable therapy sessions.
Users register and complete a short assessment before they are, matched with a mental health practitioner. The health professionals went through a rigorous onboarding process before they join the company’s panel of therapists. Sessions are conducted in Swahili and English and the company plans to onboard 1,000 therapists, and 10,000 users by the end of this year.
A 2017 report by World Health Organization states Around 50 million Nigerians live with mental disorders, while around 29 million Africans live with depression. Nguvu aims to address the limited access to mental healthcare by leveraging on the increase in smartphone and internet penetration.
Joshua Koya, Nguvu founder, and chief executive officer (CEO) said “Our customers can communicate through audio, text, and video directly in the app with their therapists and can schedule live video sessions with therapists they are matched with. This is vital in this type of time after the pandemic. The covid 19 pandemic effects have made mental health therapy more important than it was.”
“Nguvu Health provides therapists the opportunity to earn extra income through the platform. Our vision is to build extensive tech solutions that revolve around the prevention of mental disorders from happening and to correct existing disorders. We believe that every individual deserves to have good mental health which is the core of human existence.”
Koya believes Nguvu Health is set to be Africa’s top online therapy platform, and hence its competitors are largely private traditional therapy providers, who are not available on-demand.
“However, on the global scene, our competitors are Talkspace, Betterhelp, Hellokip, and Ginger, amongst others, and we are differentiated by cultural representation and affordability. Meanwhile, as we expand and build more products, the face of who our competitors are will change and evolve,” said Koya.
Self-funded to date, Nguvu Health is presently fundraising, and targeting somewhere between US$200,000 and US$400,000 to assist it with deep research and product development, operations, customer acquisition, and producing mental health education materials. Since its launch, the Nguvu app has already had over 1,000 sign-ups, and it also has 26 qualified therapists, from Nigeria and Kenya, with around 50 therapists in the pipeline across Africa.
Nguvu Health has been self-funded to date and it is presently fundraising and targeting around $200,000 and $400,000 to aid in deep research and product development, production of mental health education materials, operations, and customer acquisition. Since its launch, the company has already had more than 1,000 sign-ups, and it also has 26 qualified therapists from Kenya and Nigeria with around 50 therapists in the pipeline across Africa.
Koya said “Even though we are Nigerian founders, at this stage, Nguvu Health is pan-African and is not affiliated to the only Nigerian market. In the future, we plan to serve the global market, specifically because our future solutions will be greatly beneficial to everyone globally.”