Prince Harry joins San Francisco-based mental-health startup

Prince Harry is joining San Francisco-based startup BetterUp.com, which provides development coaching and mental health counseling.

Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, during their interviw with Oprah Winfrey in which Meghan disclosed that the stresses of royal life had given her suicidal thoughts [File: Harpo Productions/Joe Pugliese/Handout via Reuters]

Britain’s Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, is in the C-suite.

BetterUp Inc, a San Francisco-based startup that provides online professional development coaching and mental-health counseling, announced in a blog post on Tuesday that Harry has been named as its new chief impact officer.

BetterUp announced last month that it had raised $125m in series D funding, boosting its valuation to $1.73bn – firmly in “unicorn” territory defined as a private startup with a valuation in excess of $1bn.

The Wall Street Journal first reported Harry was joining the mental wellness firm.

“As a member of the BetterUp executive team, Prince Harry will expand on the work he’s been doing for years, as he educates and inspires our community and champions the importance of focusing on preventative mental fitness and human potential worldwide,” said Alexi Robichaux, co-founder and CEO of BetterUp.

Prince Harry has spoken openly about his mental health struggles following the 1997 death of his mother, Princess Diana, in a Paris car crash.

Harry’s American wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, disclosed in a high-profile interview with Oprah Winfrey broadcast earlier this month that the stresses of royal life had led to her have suicidal thoughts.

“I firmly believe that focusing on and prioritising our mental fitness unlocks potential and opportunity that we never knew we had inside of us,” Harry said in the BetterUp blog post, adding that he had personally worked with one of the company’s coaches and made the service available to employees of Archewell, the umbrella name for the couple’s foundation and their audio and video production companies.

Buckingham Palace announced in February that Harry and Meghan told Queen Elizabeth II that they would not be returning as working members of the royal family, formalising a split initiated in January 2020 when the couple announced they would step back from their roles as senior royals.

Since then, the couple has made California their home and inked multiyear deals with Netflix and Spotify.

Source: Al Jazeera