London startup behind music therapy app raises £1.1m in funding round

SPOKE, a new app that provides music with mindfulness benefits, has secured a £1.1m pre-seed investment led by Ada Ventures.

The funding will be used to expand its team, further develop the product and train more artists to create music that can have a positive impact on the mental wellbeing of a younger generation.

Based on 18 months of research and development with artists and scientific advisors, Spoke combines music with the therapeutic technique of mindfulness, where you focus on awareness of the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting your feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations.

Artists are trained by a team of clinical psychologists, therapists and neuroscientists so that each lyric, beat, sound and melody is designed to help users achieve a desired mental state. The result is music that is said to have “the same impact as scientifically-proven therapeutic practises”.

“Spoke brings together the seemingly opposing worlds of music culture and mental health,” says Ariana Alexander-Sefre, Founder and Co-CEO of Spoke.

“We believe that the music industry can play an incredible role in the mental health of listeners and artists, and fundamentally needs to change. There are many mental health apps available, but there is a generation being under-served.

“This is our first step forward - our mission is to show just how powerful music can be and how industry must evolve. We want everyone to improve their inner world to improve the outer world.”

Check Warner, founding partner at Ada Ventures, added: “Spoke is addressing a critical and completely underserved market – mental health therapy for young men. The daily news stories of young people, particularly young men, battling mental health issues are a tragic and constant reminder of the size and importance of the problem that Spoke is tackling.”