Bornholm has a good local network
Hello. PR Photo MindMind ApS.
MindMind ApS is turning its attention to difficult foreign exports.
They look like two cute little robot gadgets from a Disney movie. ’They’ are the products BiBi and Halo, which have been developed by the Bornholm-based company MindMind ApS.
A startup business that went commercial last year with the two products primarily, but not exclusively, for the Danish market, sales are also made abroad.
”We have sales in Germany and to Finland. The foreign market is definitely our focus,” says founder and owner Casper Craggs.
MindMind ApS is an innovative Bornholm-based company specialising in digital health and mental wellbeing. They develop advanced digital solutions that help monitor and improve mental health through technology and data analysis. MindMind ApS combines research and technology to create effective tools for personal development and therapy via breathing exercises, which BiBi and Halo help facilitate.
Helps with restlessness and stress
Through light signals and four different breathing systems, BiBi and Halo can help reduce restlessness, stress and anxiety both in individuals and in, for example, school classes.
”Our mission is to help people in a hectic and stressful everyday life. Here, we use breathing exercises because research shows that breathing techniques can have a calming effect on the nervous system and reduce stress and anxiety. This has then led to tools such as BiBi and Halo, he says.
Casper Craggs has a background as an elite youth cyclist, but an injury cost him the chance to live out his dream of turning professional. It was in connection with elite sport that he discovered the positive effect of breathing exercises on mental wellbeing.
That is why BiBi and Halo use some of the same techniques that you find with therapists, but here you get your helper home with you, to the office, the sports pitch or the classroom.
Innovation on the international market
The international market for digital mental health and wellbeing solutions is growing rapidly, driven by increasing awareness of mental health and technological innovation. Apps, teletherapy and AI-driven tools offer user-friendly solutions to monitor, advise and support mental health.
The market encompasses a wide range of products, from stress management and therapy to mental training, and attracts both consumers and businesses seeking effective and accessible solutions, but when it comes to small, simple tools, apart from a Dutch company, there are no products as handheld as MindMind ApS’s.
”I sense we have found a gap in the market where there is a clear need both in Denmark and abroad. Right now, we have such high demand for BiBi and Halo that we have to hold back on the next three to four products just to be able to keep up.”
Facts about Halo
- Halo has four breathing techniques
- The product guides by means of light
- Enhances calm, focus and learning ability
- For both teachers and pupils
- Based on research
Source: MindMind ApS
The future on Bornholm
But how does a startup like MindMind ApS end up on Bornholm and in Hasle?
”My wife is from Bornholm, so we were drawn to getting closer to family. In addition, rent and other important elements for a startup business are more manageable here on the island.”
Casper Craggs has a background in the technical university environment in Odense, where reality looks somewhat different.
”Here you could just pick and choose from various types of technicians, designers and engineers. There is a really strong and comprehensive environment in Odense. So I had my doubts about trying to set up here on Bornholm, but I could always move back to Funen again if there was a lack of opportunities,” he says, and continues:
”Yet Bornholm proved that a small community can be a great strength. When I started asking around, it quickly turned out that there lived a skilled designer in Rø, there's a plastics guy in Aakirkeby, and an engineer in Østermarie. Really talented people who are ideal for a startup like ours, and I tracked them down more or less simply by others passing me on.”
I wonder if that will be enough for future needs?
”Time will tell. Because one thing is that the specialists are actually here, but are there enough of them if we are to scale up? That is a question for the future to answer, but overall Bornholm is in many ways an easy place to start up, and you can sit and assemble your products at your kitchen table at home. It is when you reach a larger scale that I might have concerns about whether Bornholm can offer the necessary tools.”
BY SØREN SORGENFRI