Former Calm and Ginger Executive Joins BetterUp Care as President

BetterUp, a behavioral health unicorn company that provides virtual counseling and coaching services, has named Omar Dawood as president of its BetterUp Care offering.

Launched in February, BetterUp Care links users to one-on-one coaching with behavioral health specialists, as well as on-demand support for issues pertaining to parenting, nutrition and sleep. Curated content, group coaching and digital learning are also offered through BetterUp Care, which is available to thousands of employees at companies such as Hilton, Anheuser-Busch InBev and Salesforce.

As BetterUp Care’s president, Dawood will lead the offering’s sales, marketing, clinical and product teams to develop mental fitness and preventive solutions. Dawood — who has prior experience in senior management, medical research and clinical roles — will be specifically tasked with helping extend BetterUp’s one-one-one and group coaching services to employers across the globe.

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“I’m thrilled to join BetterUp at a time when the need for whole-person care has never been greater,” Dawood said in a press release. “We have a real opportunity to take behavioral healthcare, which has historically been very reactive, and reframe the industry to be centered around proactive prevention.”

Dawood comes to his new position from Calm, where he was the chief medical officer (CMO) for the behavioral wellness platform. Prior to Calm, Dawood was a CMO for fellow mental wellness provider Ginger.

“At the core of BetterUp is our focus on infusing research and scientific rigor into the tools that support individuals in becoming their best selves,” Alexi Robichaux, BetterUp’s co-founder and CEO, said in the press release. “Omar has built his career at the forefront of behavioral health and been a key player in pushing the industry further to make the science of peak performance more available to all through digital experiences. We are incredibly excited to bring his expertise to lead BetterUp Care.”

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Founded in 2013, BetterUp uses artificial intelligence (AI) technology and behavioral science to provide mental wellness services to users. The San Francisco-based company provides counseling, coaching and mentorship to users through one-on-one and group therapy formats. The company has a network of over 2,500 coaches, with services in 46 languages across more than 90 countries.

BetterUp is one of the few pure-play virtual behavioral health startups to have reached unicorn status by crossing the billion-dollar threshold. The company is currently valued at $1.73 billion.

In February, BetterUp raised $125 million in a Series D funding round led by venture capital firm ICONIQ Growth. The round brought the amount raised by the company to date to $269.8 million, according to fundraising tracking site Crunchbase.

BetterUp, last month, named Tom Van Gilder as its CMO. Among other executives in BetterUp’s C-suite include Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, who is the company’s chief impact officer.

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