Calm is a

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

company based in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. It produces

meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally cal ...

products, including guided meditations and ''Sleep Stories o''n its subscription-based app''.''

History

Calm was founded on May 4, 2012 by

Michael Acton Smith Michael Acton Smith OBE (born 1974) is the current co-CEO and co-Founder of Calm, a meditation space company. He is also the founder of Firebox.com, and founder and chairman of children's entertainment company Mind Candy – the creators of ...

and

Alex Tew Alex Tew is a British entrepreneur who is most famous for having founded The Million Dollar Homepage in 2005, at the age of 21, which earned him his first million in only 5 months. In late 2008, he made the headline-hitting Flash game Sock and Awe ...

Tamara Levitt Tamara Levitt (born December 2, 1971) is a Canadian author, mindfulness instructor, and voice-over artist most widely known as the narrator for the Calm app. Biography Levitt had a difficult relationship with her father growing up. At an ear ...

became the Head of Mindfulness in November 2014 and is one of the app's primary narrators. The company generated $22 million in revenue in 2017 and reached an annual revenue run rate of $75 million. , Calm had raised $1.5M in

angel investment An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital for a business or businesses start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or owners ...

s. As of February 2019, the company was valued at $1 Billion and had raised $116 million, with contributions from existing investors, including

Insight Venture Partners Insight Partners (previously Insight Venture Partners) is an American venture capital and private equity firm based in New York City. The firm invests in growth-stage technology, software and Internet businesses. History Insight Partners was fo ...

Ashton Kutcher Christopher Ashton Kutcher (; born February 7, 1978) is an American actor, producer, entrepreneur, and former model. He is the recipient of various accolades, including a People's Choice Award, and nominations for two Young Artist Awards, a S ...

's Sound Ventures, and

Creative Artists Agency Creative Artists Agency LLC (CAA) is an American talent and sports agency based in Los Angeles, California. It is regarded as an influential company in the talent agency business and manages numerous clients. In March 2016, CAA had 1,800 emplo ...

. Calm was Apple's "App of the Year" in 2017, and was ranked by '' Inc.'' as one of the fastest-growing private companies in America in 2018. In February 2022, Calm acquired Ripple Health Group, a technology company which connects users with proper healthcare options. The acquisition will focus on building ''Calm Health'', which will replace the company's existing employer offering, ''Calm for Business''. ''Calm Health'' was released in October 2022 and offered through traditional healthcare providers, payers, and self-insured employers. It will initially be offered to patients suffering from anxiety or depression. The company plans to add mental health programs for those with other physical conditions. In November 2022, Calm had four million paid subscribers.

Product

Calm produces meditation products, including guided meditations, a book, narrated ''Sleep Stories'', and health and meditation videos. Their primary product is the meditation app, available on iPhone and Android devices. The app features both meditation tools and sleep aids. The meditation area offers breathing exercises, a daily meditation, several multi-day programs, and unguided and

guided meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm ...

sessions. On December 1, 2016, Calm launched an initial range of 23 ''Sleep Stories'', with the aim of helping adult listeners sleep. ''Sleep Stories'' include archival recordings of

Bob Ross Robert Norman Ross (October 29, 1942 – July 4, 1995) was an American painter, art instructor, and television host. He was the creator and host of ''The Joy of Painting'', an instructional television program that aired from 1983 to 1994 on ...

, classical and

ambient music Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody.The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bloomsbury, London, 2003. It u ...

including compositions by

Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped wit ...

Sigur Rós Sigur Rós () is an Icelandic post-rock band from Reykjavík, active since 1994. The band comprises singer and guitarist Jón Þór "Jónsi" Birgisson, bassist Georg Hólm, and keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson. Known for their ethereal sound, fron ...

deadmau5 Joel Thomas Zimmerman (born January 5, 1981), known professionally as Deadmau5 (stylized as deadmau5; pronounced "dead-mouse"), is a Canadian electronic music producer and DJ. He mainly produces progressive house music, though he also produces ...

, and

Moby Richard Melville Hall (born September 11, 1965), known professionally as Moby, is an American musician, songwriter, singer, producer, and animal rights activist. He has sold 20 million records worldwide. AllMusic considers him to be "among the ...

, as well as original stories and public domain fiction read by narrators including

LeBron James LeBron Raymone James Sr. (; born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he is widely considered one of the greatest pl ...

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Beatie Wolfe Beatie Wolfe is an Anglo-American award-winning, multimedia artist and musician described as a "musical weirdo and visionary" known for seeing music differently and creating new formats for music and art in the digital era. These projects inclu ...

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Joanna Lumley Dame Joanna Lamond Lumley (born 1 May 1946) is an English actress, presenter, former model, author, television producer, and activist. She has won two BAFTA TV Awards for her role as Patsy Stone in the BBC sitcom ''Absolutely Fabulous'' (1992 ...

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, Rosè,

Keith Morrison Keith Morrison (born July 2, 1947) is a Canadian broadcast journalist. Since 1995, he has been a correspondent for ''Dateline NBC''. Career Beginning his career in the 1960s, Morrison was a reporter and anchor at local stations in Saskatchew ...

Tom Hiddleston Thomas William Hiddleston (born 9 February 1981) is an English actor. He gained international fame portraying Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), starting with ''Thor'' in 2011 and most recently in the Disney+ series ''Loki'' in 2021 ...

Clarke Peters Peter Clarke (born April 7, 1952), known professionally as Clarke Peters, is an American-British actor, writer, and director. He is best known for his roles as Lester Freamon in the television series ''The Wire'' (2002–2008) and Albert Lambrea ...

, Richard Hamilton,

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ASMR Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) is a tingling sensation that usually begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine. A pleasant form of paresthesia, it has been compared with auditory-tactile synesthesia a ...

content creator Emma "WhispersRed" Smith, ''

League of Legends ''League of Legends'' (''LoL''), commonly referred to as ''League'', is a 2009 multiplayer online battle arena video game developed and published by Riot Games. Inspired by ''Defense of the Ancients'', a Mod (video games), custom map for War ...

'' voice actor Erik Braa,

Peter Jefferson Peter Jefferson (February 29, 1708 – August 17, 1757) was a planter, cartographer and politician in colonial Virginia best known for being the father of the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. The "Fry-Jefferson Map", creat ...

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Eva Green Eva Gaëlle Green (, ; born ) is a French actress and model. The daughter of actress Marlène Jobert, she began her career in theatre before making her film debut in Bernardo Bertolucci's '' The Dreamers'' (2003). She achieved international reco ...

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and

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contributed narration to the sleep stories in 2018, supporting (RED)'s

Global Fund The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (or simply the Global Fund) is an international financing and partnership organization that aims to "attract, leverage and invest additional resources to end the epidemics of HIV/AIDS, t ...

to end AIDS. The company also produced a nature documentary series for

HBO Max HBO Max is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in the United States on May 27, 2020, the service is built around the libraries of HBO, Warner Bros., Cartoon Netw ...

. The app also hosts

Alanis Morissette Alanis Nadine Morissette ( ; born June 1, 1974) is a Canadian-American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known for her emotive mezzo-soprano voice and confessional songwriting, Morissette began her career in Canada in the early 1990s with tw ...

's 2022 ambient album ''

The Storm Before the Calm ''The Storm Before the Calm'' (stylized in all lowercase) is the tenth (and eighth international) studio album by Canadian-American singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette, released June 17, 2022, via Epiphany Music and Thirty Tigers, as well as by RC ...

''.

Jay Shetty Jay Shetty (born 6 September 1987) is an English author and life coach. As the host of the podcast ''On Purpose'', his guests have included Alicia Keys, Khloe Kardashian, and Kobe Bryant, resulting in over 300 million downloads. He has appear ...

, the company's chief purpose officer, hosts a short mindfulness message called "The Daily Jay."

Publications

* ''Calm: Calm the Mind. Change the World'' (Penguin, 2015), Michael Acton Smith,

References

{{Reflist Companies based in San Francisco American companies established in 2012 Meditation Mindfulness Software companies established in 2012 Software companies of the United States

History

Product

Publications

See also

References