Happify raises $5M in convertible debt to grow ’emotional fitness’ platform

We know there’s an app for everything, but is there really an app for happiness? The folks at Happify think so, and they say they’ve recorded the user results that prove it.

Happify offers an online service that assesses users’ happiness levels based on both subjective and existing objective evaluations, and walks them through a set of programs and games that push users toward healthier mindsets.

Happify cofounder and president Ofer Leidner is quick to point out that it’s all based on the science of positive psychology, neuroscience, and behavioral health.

The Happify service doesn’t necessarily coach users on how to change the facts of their lives, but rather teaches them ways of looking at those facts through a different, more positive lens. Happify calls this “emotional fitness.”

And user numbers are growing. Leidner says the company has recently passed the 1.2 million user mark. “Our iOS app is consistently ranked among the Top 10 grossing apps and one of the Top 10 most downloaded free app in the health and fitness category,” he says.

The company says it has also raised $5 million in funding via a convertible note. The round was led by Mangrove Capital Partners and Bridge Builder Collaborative.

Happify was founded in October 2013 by two casual gaming entrepreneurs — Leidner and CEO Tomer Ben-Kiki — and launched in October 2013.

Leidner said his company is looking at ways to integrate data gathered by physical sensors into the online service. For example, Happify might extract heart rate information from Apple’s HealthKit platform and try to learn something about the user’s emotional state from it. The heartbeat data might originally be collected by the sensors on an Apple Watch.

Happify was available on iOS only for a long time, but the Android app has just launched.