In today's world, many people neglect their mental health due to their busy schedules. This inspired Yunha Kim to create Simple Habit, a meditation app that relieves stress and promotes mindfulness. Even though she didn't reach a deal Shark TankThe app then flourished, with Simple Habit valued at $12 million by 2025. In early 2023, the app was acquired by Ingenio, and Kim began her next venture.
Yunha Kim is from San Francisco, California. She graduated from Duke University and interned at the United Nations and McKinsey & Company. Kim began her career as an investment banking analyst at Jefferies & Company.
Her first business venture came in 2013, co-founding the technology company Locket. Locket is an app that delivers targeted news to your lock screen. Kim served as the company's CEO for more than two years until the company was acquired by Wish in 2015. While working, she earned an MBA from Stanford University, but the workload forced her to find a way to de-stress after a long day.
Start application
In 2015, Yunha dropped out of grad school to start her second business, a meditation app designed for busy people. In designing the app, she turned to Harvard psychologists for help.
Ready for launch in 2016, her app aims to improve people's lives by promoting restful sleep and lowering stress levels. It is primarily aimed at overworked young professionals who need stress relief.
The standard version of the app is free, but to unlock enhanced features, users must pay $11.99 per month, $89.99 per year, or $299 for lifetime use.
‘Shark Tank’ Pitch: Intense Exchange
In 2017, Jin Yunhe appeared in the ninth season of “Shark Tank” with an asking price of US$600,000, 5%. As she began her speech, she invited the Sharks to take a moment of meditation. However, she didn't expect what would happen next.
At this point, Simple Habit has 500,000 users, with over 5,000 paying subscribers generating $750,000 in annual recurring revenue. The business grew 50% quarter-on-quarter and is fully funded. Things got heated when Kim mentioned that only $500,000 of the $2.8 million in funding had been used.
The Sharks were baffled as to why she was raising more money. Mark Cuban called her a “money digger” and others said she was just in it for publicity. Robert Herjavec and Richard Branson jointly offered $600,000 for 20% of the shares, but Yunha rejected it. Yunha couldn't accept the deal because her previous investors invested at a $10 million valuation.
After Shark Tank: App Growth and Funding Success
After the episode aired, downloads of the app increased significantly. The app was downloaded 75,000 times the night it aired and quickly surpassed 1 million users by the end of 2017. Currently, the app has 5 million users, with an average of 80,000 new members per month.
The publicity and user growth of “Shark Tank” will help Yunha's future fundraising. She has raised more than $12.8 million from high-profile investors including New Enterprise Associates, Y Combinator, and Foundation Capital.
In March 2023, the app was acquired by mental health marketplace Ingenio and continues to operate independently. Financial terms of the sale were not publicly disclosed. Following this success, Kim launched Sleep Reset, an app designed to improve sleep through cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia,
Simple Habit is now one of the most acclaimed meditation apps, along with Calm, Headspace, and Insight Timer. Well-known websites like Verywellmind.com have rated it as the best meditation app based on their selections. Simple Habit's annual revenue is estimated at approximately $5 million, with the company valued at $12 million.
Categories: Shark Tank
Source: svlsf.edu.vn