Calm (company)

Calm.com, Inc., doing business as Calm, is a software company based in San Francisco, California. It produces meditation products, including guided meditations and Sleep Stories on its subscription-based app.

History
Calm was founded on May 4, 2012 by Michael Acton Smith and Alex Tew. Tamara Levitt 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 investments.

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, Ashton Kutcher's Sound Ventures, and Creative Artists Agency.

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 that connects users with proper healthcare options. The acquisition focused on building Calm Health, which was released in October 2022 and offered through traditional healthcare providers, payers, and self-insured employers. It was initially offered to patients suffering from anxiety or depression. The company planned to add mental health programs for those with other physical conditions.

In August 2022, Calm laid off 20% of its employees, roughly 90 of 400 employees.

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 sessions.

The company also produced a nature documentary series for HBO Max.

The app also hosts Alanis Morissette's 2022 ambient album The Storm Before the Calm.

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

"Sleep Stories" series
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, classical and ambient music including compositions by Johannes Brahms, Sigur Rós, deadmau5, and Moby. The series also included original stories and public domain fiction read by narrators including: • LeBron James

• Stephen Fry

• Lucy Liu

• Idris Elba

• Kate Winslet,

• Beatie Wolfe

• Danai Gurira

• Joanna Lumley

• Jerome Flynn

• Terry W. Virts

• Rosè

• Keith Morrison

• Tom Hiddleston

• Clarke Peters

• Richard Hamilton

• Cillian Murphy

• Kelly Rowland

• ASMR content creator Emma "WhispersRed" Smith

• League of Legends voice actor Erik Braa

• Peter Jefferson

• Freema Agyeman

• Eva Green

• Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime

• LeVar Burton

• Laura Dern

• Nick Offerman

• Harry Styles

• Matthew McConaughey.

In 2018, singer Leona Lewis contributed narration to the sleep stories in support of (RED)'s Global Fund to end AIDS.

In December 2023, Calm announced that it had used AI voice-cloning technology to create a Christmas-themed original story "It's a Wonderful Sleep Story" narrated by American actor James Stewart, 25 years after the actor's death in 1997.

Publications

 * Calm: Calm the Mind. Change the World (Penguin, 2015), Michael Acton Smith, ISBN 978-0241201954