Braavo Capital is pleased to announce Rootd as the winner of its inaugural Founder in Residence marketing competition.

Rootd, an award-winning app, provides “panic and anxiety relief in your pocket.” With a stigma-breaking design, on-demand accessibility and therapist-approved lessons and exercises, the app helps users manage all stages of panic attacks and anxiety. Users are able to find quick relief in public without fear that others will know they are using a mental health tool because it’s designed to look like a game. Founded in 2017 by Ania Wysocka, the app has grown to help over two million users in 150 countries and has been featured on the Apple App Store more than 100 times.

“I started Rootd with a mission to help anyone struggling with the debilitating effects of panic attacks and anxiety,” shares Wysocka. A personal journey, Wysocka experienced a sudden onset of panic attacks in her final year of college and took to the internet to find support, but the resources were either hard to access or too expensive. She knew an app would be the most effective solution for providing easy access to millions of people who — like Wysocka — needed immediate support.

After launch, Rootd saw impressive organic growth, with more than 90% of its over two million users coming in organically. The app has been named one of the “best apps for anxiety” by Healthline, Cosmopolitan and Women’s Health; it was also featured in Time Magazine’s The Age of Anxiety.

On winning the marketing competition, Wysocka says, “Rootd’s organic growth to two million users has validated our product and we are excited to work with Braavo via the Founders in Residence Program as we embark on the next phase of growth.”

The marketing competition launched as part of Braavo Capital’s Founder in Residence program. The program brings leading app founders in-house to support other ambitious founders in Braavo’s portfolio and beyond. The inaugural competition was open for two weeks and received more than 100 submissions spanning four continents.

Seventy-nine percent of competition participants reported top concerns for the upcoming year related to funding, marketing efficiency and team resources. “This is what the Founder in Residence program is designed to do,” says Mark Loranger, Braavo Co-founder, “and we are thrilled to support Rootd in our new partnership.”

As the competition winner, Rootd has been awarded resources that will help accelerate growth: an investment from Braavo Capital as well as marketing mentorship and support from Braavo Founder in Residence, Alanna Harvey, Co-founder and CMO of Flipd and other experts on the Braavo team. Additionally, Rootd will receive access to Braavo Analytics, a powerful BI system that provides executive-level reporting for full financial insight.