Blooming aims to bring mindfulness meditation to a company near you

Blooming headband

Blooming is a Finland-based startup that aims to make workers’ stress easier to manage using modern wearable technology. The service includes stress monitoring and tracking, personal coaching, peer pressure and meditation advice to help users cope with everyday’s stress.

Rather than requiring proprietary wearables, Blooming relies on existing devices to do its magic. For the brain activity monitoring, it partnered with Interaxon; and for the heart rate monitoring hardware – there’s Firstbeat range of sports, stress, and sleep monitoring tools.

“Blooming’s vision is to make mindfulness meditation as widely practiced as physical exercise, giving people tools for self-empowerment, leading to reduction of stress and anxiety”, Kristian Ranta, Blooming’s CEO and Founder, told TechCrunch.

As part of deal, users receive a personal headband and a stress monitor, after which they’re guided through the basics of mindfulness meditation. Then, they are engaged with a personal mindfulness coach and a peer-group consisting of colleagues. The programme monitors and tracks a user’s stress level, while making an effort to build a lasting habit of meditation.

Blooming’s service is positioned as a high-end perk, with an intensive 8-week program with a personal coach going for $2,500. After those two months, follow-up content is available for $79 per month.

The service has been in early testing since December 2015 and is now being further developed towards a Beta release this month. Blooming has recently raised a small round of pre-seed funding from Lifeline Ventures and Reaktor Ventures.