At 16, Theodoric Chew was on track for academic success when he was enrolled in Raffles Institution, a school that counts Singaporean politicians among its alumni.
But Chew’s interest in his studies was waning. Outside of school, he was working on side hustles in drop shipping, a business model that allows entrepreneurs to start an online business and sell products to their buyers without ever actually stocking the items themselves.
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“Most failed but they got me really intrigued. Doing online marketing and website building helped me in the following years,” he tells The Edge Singapore.
Chew was also battling anxiety and had been seeing a therapist since his secondary school years. “Having spent my teenage years building companies, that was also quite stressful; hence why I started seeing a therapist early on as well.”
At 16, he left school to become an entrepreneur. “My parents were definitely disappointed when it happened; Asian parents, right? You got to a good school and now you want to do this,” he says. “My mom and dad are super supportive. I’m the youngest of all four kids, two boys and two girls, so I think they understand that we have different paths.”
After working on a string of companies, Chew drew on his experiences with therapy to start Intellect, with a mission to make mental healthcare accessible for everyone. “This company helps people bridge the mental health gap. I went to therapy when I was younger, I saw the benefits, and also saw how many people in Asia need help but can’t access it. That’s what we’re trying to solve,” says Chew.
Launched in April last year, Chew co-founded Intellect with his Delhi-based chief technology officer Anurag Chutani. The start-up has signed more than 20 enterprise clients to their corporate mental health benefits solution — including companies like Foodpanda, Shopback, Carousell, as well as Fortune 500 firms like Avery Dennison and Schroders and government agencies.
Available in 11 languages, Intellect offers two product suites: A mental health benefits solution for employers that features clinically-based digital therapy and healthcare services, and a consumer app that carries self-guided digital therapy programmes.
“Users get on the app and go through a short assessment. Then, we show them a pool of relevant coaches who suit their goals, whether in career, relationships or parenting. They choose who suits their needs,” says Chew.
On the enterprise version, employees can match with professionals who do live consultations virtually, he adds. Where traditional employee assistance programme (EAP) use rates hover between 0.5% to 3%, Chew claims Intellect has an EAP rate of 40%.
Intellect, which claims to be Asia’s fastest growing mental health start-up, serves over 2.5 million users globally. It was also selected as one of Google’s Best Apps of 2020.
The World Health Organization (WHO) reported a 400% increase in new depressive and anxiety disorder diagnoses in 2021. “The demand for mental health services globally has seen a sharp up tick in 2021, exacerbated by Covid-19 and the rapidly changing trends of how people live and work,” says Chew.
In August, Intellect announced pre-Series A funding of US$2.2 million ($2.9 million) from Insignia Ventures Partners, Y Combinator, XA Network and several FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google) executives, along with family offices.
This followed Intellect’s US$800,000 seed funding round, announced in December last year, bringing total funding to US$3 million.
Intellect is now taking a bigger step in championing mental health awareness; the start-up is hosting a two-day virtual conference on Oct 28 and 29.
Titled “Shifting the narrative of mental health in Asia”, the conference aims to fight the stigma of mental health in the region. It will feature keynote presentations, panel discussions and interactive question and answer sessions by Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Jurong GRC Member of Parliament Rahayu Mahzam, National Youth Council Singapore CEO David Chua and deputy director of clinical psychology at the National University of Singapore Dr Oliver Suendermann, among others.
“We’re not trying to claim that our digital solution will ever beat face-to-face therapy,” says Chew. “I think that is the most immersive and best experience. But we can reach millions of people and circumvent the supply shortage of some markets. We can get really close to, if not on par with, the benefits from a face-to-face therapy session, through our clinically based solution.”
Prior to starting Intellect, Chew spent a year working for Entrepreneur First, famed for its intense, six-month incubator programme. “A lot of people come and expect things to be really flying, but normally it takes a year to actually get there.”
At only 25 years old, Chew enters his late-twenties with a wealth of experience. What words of advice would he give to potential founders?
“Expect to fail a few times. Don’t get me wrong; I think education is great for many people. You need to kind of figure out what your interests are,” says Chew.
“Entrepreneurship is not for everyone; I think it has been very sensationalised in the past few years with social media,” he adds.
“But definitely try to do more than what society tells you. You don’t have to be pigeon-holed into university, or a job. There has never been a better time to actually do something. You don’t have to go all in or all out, but definitely try it.”
Photos: Albert Chua / The Edge Singapore
