He Raised $50 Million To Provide Online Access To Therapy And Holistic Mental Healthcare Services Via A Smartphone App

When Kristian Ranta reflects on his entrepreneurial journey, it’s a story filled with grit, resilience, and a profound sense of purpose. From his roots in Finland to founding ventures that span continents, Kristian’s experiences offer invaluable lessons for aspiring founders.

His latest venture, Meru Health, is a testament to his dedication to addressing one of the most pressing challenges of our time: mental health. In this in-depth interview, Kristian talks about moving to the US, getting into the Y Combinator program, and raising funding for his company.

Listen to the full podcast episode and review the transcript here.

From Finland to Founding Mendor at 25

Kristian grew up in a Helsinki suburb, with early exposure to entrepreneurship through his parents. A self-proclaimed “nerdy kid,” he pursued computer science and information systems as his undergrad and graduate studies in school, which laid the groundwork for his career.

By age 25, Kristian co-founded his first company, Mendor, a glucose-monitoring business inspired by a co-founder’s experience, particularly with Type I diabetes. This first venture was no easy ride. Building a medical device company straight out of school required immense capital and tenacity.

Despite setbacks, Mendor scaled its operations, securing $23M (€22M)in funding and eventually selling the business to a South Korean company. It has now gone public.

Today, Mendor’s devices continue to improve the lives of people with type 1 diabetes across 20 European countries—a legacy that Kristian finds deeply rewarding.

The Test of Resilience – In Retrospect

One of the defining moments of Kristian’s journey came when Mendor faced its darkest hour. With only two weeks of runway left, the board fired the CEO and turned to Kristian for leadership. Though the challenge seemed insurmountable, he accepted the role.

At that time, Kristian was the VP and managing business development. The CEO was a medtech executive with experience working at Johnson & Johnson and billion-dollar revenue budgets. They had hired someone to take the product to the market, but he could not raise funding.

What followed were the most stressful two weeks of his life. Kristian cold-called potential investors, ultimately convincing a business angel to invest $527K (€500K). A government fund matched the amount, giving the company the breathing room it needed.

This episode, though harrowing, cemented Kristian’s belief in the power of resilience and swift action. “Stress management is key,” Kristian emphasizes. During those challenging times, he relied on meditation, exercise, adequate sleep, and daily walks in the forest near Mendor’s Helsinki base.

These habits became integral to his approach to entrepreneurship, underscoring the importance of maintaining mental health amidst high-pressure situations. Five years into Mendor, Kristian found it more and more challenging to raise funding for the company.

Medical devices is a capital-intensive sector, and Mendor was based in Finland, where the business ecosystem wasn’t particularly inclined to support them. That’s when Kristian opted to exit, but his enthusiasm for healthcare and building technology continued.

The Genesis of Meru Health

After the exit, Kristian spent time rebooting with meditation and scouting around for the next exciting idea for a new company. He connected with Riku Lindholm, with whom he had worked earlier. The duo started the exploration phase before bringing in Albert.

Albert brought in the technical expertise for Meru Health and had been with the duo since school and university. The company was officially founded in early 2016, and they set on a journey to building Meru Health into a leading lifestyle medicine company in mental healthcare.

A Personal Tragedy Inspires a Mission

Kristian’s transition to mental health was deeply personal. After losing his older brother to suicide, he became determined to find better solutions for people struggling with depression.

Recognizing the limitations of traditional mental health care, which often relies solely on medication or therapy, Kristian envisioned a more holistic approach—one that integrates exercise, sleep coaching, diet, mindfulness, and community support alongside conventional treatments.

This vision led to the founding of Meru Health, a tech-enabled mental health platform. Meru Health combines cutting-edge technology with holistic care, offering services such as therapy, coaching, and mindfulness practices.

The company’s platform is designed to be an integrative lifestyle medicine company targeting mental health. Meru is scalable and data-driven, with a mission to make mental health care accessible worldwide.

The Meru Health Business Model and Scaling in the U.S.

As Meru started to scale across Europe and Asia, Kristian and his co-founders began to think about building a global company eventually. Their end goal was to take the company public at one point in the future and create a sustainable healthcare organization.

Building a global health tech company required a bold move to the United States. Kristian recognized that the US healthcare system comprises 50% of the worldwide healthcare market in just a single country.

Thus, in 2017, Kristian and his team relocated to Silicon Valley, recognizing it as the epicenter for scaling innovative healthcare solutions. Their objective–to help many people in the US get access to much better mental health care in the future.

Kristian explains that Meru Health essentially sells to health insurance companies. The brand is a tech-enabled provider, having doctors, coaches, and therapists on board. It has proprietary technology, an electronic medical record system, and a patient-facing app.

Meru Health has the capability to deliver mental care nationwide in every zip code in the US. It operates on a B2B2C model, partnering with major U.S. health insurers like Cigna, Aetna, and Blue Cross Blue Shield to deliver care. What sets Meru Health apart is its integrative approach.

The Path to YC and Beyond

“We applied to Y Combinator six times,” Kristian recalls. “The first three times, we didn’t even get an interview.” With no connections in the U.S. healthcare system and skepticism from investors, the odds were stacked against them, mainly since they came from Finland.

Yet, the team persisted, demonstrating progress with each application and getting their first customers. Their persistence paid off, showcasing early traction, including a research partnership with Stanford University and funding from a few tech investors in Finland.

Meru Health finally gained acceptance into YC and was called in for an interview. The accelerator opened doors to investors and validated their approach to revolutionizing mental health care, proving to be a valuable backer.

Raising Funding for Meru Health

As Kristian reminisces, coming from Finland, getting a foothold in the US was almost impossible. They had no context or background in the country. But right after getting to demo day at the Y Combinator, they raised their seed round in funding.

Meru Health also hired some fantastic people from YC networks since their alumni networks are active and supportive. They also got traction from local investors in Silicon Valley. Kristian reveals that they have raised around $50M in funding to date.

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Looking back at Meru Health’s journey, Kristian explains that the company started scaling quickly thanks to the capital infusion. It got into the first insurance company deals and acquired employer customers. Their series A round was from Brad Feld at the Foundry Group in Colorado.

Industry Ventures from San Francisco funded their series B round and is known to be a global later-stage healthcare investor.

Why Meru Health Solutions Work

Kristian explains that conventional mental health systems tend to overlook many areas of human health that are contributing to mental health, such as nutrition, sleep, exercise, etc.

As an example the fact that vitamin deficiencies like B12, B9, B6, and vitamin D can actually cause clinical mental illness. Traditional programs don’t check for deficiencies by running blood tests or checking the patient’s diet.

Antidepressants cannot fix deficiencies that are prevalent in nutrition and diet in the US. A more holistic approach is needed to help people struggling with mental health problems. Further, Meru Health was strategically timed during the increasing consciousness about mental wellness.

The telehealth and remote therapy space exploded in 2019-2020 in response to the pandemic. That helped spur Meru Health’s traction since it hit a critical inflection point. Kristian considers timing to be crucial for the company’s success.

Building and scaling Meru would have been a lot harder if the mental healthcare space had not seen the explosion when it did.

Culture as a Beacon

Kristian emphasized that a well-defined culture serves as a beacon, attracting the right employees and customers. By clearly articulating and sharing their values, Mental Health has built a team that is aligned with its mission and vision.

Compassion, in particular, has resonated strongly with recruits, creating an environment where high standards are met with mutual support and understanding. For Kristian, culture isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a strategic advantage.

“Define the culture, define the values, and let it beacon out to the world,” he advises. Whether hiring top talent or building relationships with early customers, a well-crafted culture can set a company apart and drive long-term success.

Kristian has been very clear about setting the right tone for building the company’s values and traits. Asking the right questions helps establish a cohesive culture.

• Why do you come to work every day?
• Why do you persist through challenges?
• How do you work together?
• How do you treat other people, colleagues, and customers?
• How do we work?
• What do we value in this culture?

Designing Culture with Intention

Kristian Ranta believes that culture isn’t just something a company organically develops—it needs to be intentionally designed. Reflecting on his early entrepreneurial ventures, he admitted that the cultures in his first businesses were chaotic and lacked cohesion.

This, Kristian says, was a significant learning experience. “Culture is the most important thing in a company,” he shared, emphasizing its role as the “spinal cord” of a growing organization. These foundational aspects become the guiding force for a company’s operations and growth.

A Value Workshop: Building Mental Health with Purpose

When Kristian co-founded his current venture, Mental Health, he and his co-founders approached culture differently. Before even launching the company, they conducted a full-day value workshop.

They explored personal motivations, challenges with mental health within their families, and the deeper purpose behind their mission. This exercise laid the groundwork for a company driven by transparency, resourcefulness, and a customer-first philosophy.

It also unified the founding team around a shared vision of creating meaningful change in mental health. “It takes a long time to build healthcare companies,” Kristian explained. “We needed to be clear on why we wanted to embark on this journey.”

Balancing High Performance with Compassion

One of the most unique aspects of Mental Health culture is its balance between high performance and compassion. Drawing from experiences in consulting firms and startups, Kristian and his team recognized the importance of kindness in a high-performance environment.

“Everyone wants to work in a kind environment,” Kristian explained, noting that kindness becomes even more critical in fast-paced, challenging workplaces.

By prioritizing compassion as a core value, the company has created a workplace where respect and friendliness coexist with ambition and excellence. This cultural cornerstone has not only shaped how team members interact but has also attracted like-minded talent.

A Vision for the Future

Kristian and his co-founders are building Meru Health with the ambition of creating a lasting impact. Their goal is to make mental health care accessible, effective, and holistic, touching the lives of millions worldwide.

For Kristian, the journey is deeply personal, but it’s also a testament to what’s possible when resilience, purpose, and innovation come together.

His story is a powerful reminder that even in the face of immense challenges, founders can create transformative solutions—and, in doing so, leave a legacy that truly matters.

Listen to the full podcast episode to know more, including:

• Facing a critical moment at Mendor, Kristian secured life-saving funding with just two weeks of runway left, demonstrating the power of swift action and determination.
• Kristian emphasizes the importance of intentionally designing a company culture as a “beacon” to attract the right employees, customers, and partners.
• Kristian’s personal loss inspired Meru Health’s holistic mental health care approach, integrating lifestyle factors like diet, sleep, and mindfulness with conventional treatments.
• Meru Health applied to Y Combinator six times before being accepted, showcasing the value of persistence and incremental progress.
• The telehealth boom during the pandemic was a pivotal moment for Meru Health, highlighting the importance of aligning innovation with market trends.
• Relocating to Silicon Valley enabled Meru Health to tap into the world’s largest healthcare market and access critical partnerships with major insurers.
• Kristian advocates balancing high performance with kindness, creating an ambitious yet supportive work environment that attracts top talent.

 

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