Calm Lures Strategic Partners With Cheap Stock

Consumer startups aren’t getting a lot of attention from venture capitalists these days, except if they’re powered by artificial intelligence. (More on that later.) That disinterest has made it particularly challenging for VC-backed startups wrestling with a slowdown in consumer demand after a spike during the pandemic. One path forward: business sales. 

That pivot has been underway at Calm.com. The San Francisco-based parent of the meditation and wellness app raised more than $190 million over the past decade-plus from investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, TPG and Insight Partners, hitting a $2 billion valuation in 2020. Now it’s sweetening the pot for strategic partners, reserving tens of millions of dollars worth of equity warrants for future partnerships, according to a previously unreported securities filing.