Shezlong

Shezlong is the leading online Al-powered psychotherapy platform in the Middle East and Africa that offers high-quality, comprehensive, affordable mental health services from anywhere at any time.

Shezlong is the first and largest online psychotherapy platform that aims to give people convenient and private access to professional counselling. Shezlong has experienced significant traction from Arabs worldwide, hitting 85 countries and still growing exponentially.
- 111k Therapy sessions
- 350+ qualified therapists from 25 countries
- Raised fund of $1.25M
- Won first place at EXPOlive competition
- 9000 free therapy sessions for women surviving violence
- Providing therapy sessions for hearing and speech impaired people

Globally, out of every 1000 citizens, 315 have psychiatric symptoms, 101 are identified and diagnosed, and only 17 are referred to mental health professionals. The percentage of identified/diagnosed in MENA is way below the global average, partly because of a lack of awareness and high cost.
Shezlong is addressing the awareness and pricing issue and will help significantly increase the percentage of identified and diagnosed patients in MENA.
- Market Capacity= 436 Million Arabs
- Market Potential= 200 Million experience psych symptoms
- Targeted Market= 170 Million Don’t Receive Treatment (45%)

Shezlong initially targeted Arabs aged 18-65 and reached 111K users (63% are women) from 85 countries. It has recently expanded to 25 countries in Africa and established a regional office in South Africa to target English-speaking natives.

Many people need psychotherapy but do not have access due to many obstacles—lack of awareness, Social stigma, Therapists' accessibility, and fear of exposure. At Shezlong, we are working on overcoming all those obstacles to make therapy accessible for all.

Shezlong is a pioneering online platform that offers private, comprehensive, and high-quality, yet affordable, mental health services for anyone seeking psychosocial and emotional support in MENA and Africa. Shezlong utilizes innovative and easy-to-use technology to provide remote awareness and psychotherapy sessions through an equipped team of certified psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, and social workers. Our overall aim is to improve the accessibility of mental health services for all people.

Our competitors include other online psychotherapy service providers like O7 and Takalam in Egypt and Thrive and BetterHelp in South Africa. However, we are the only service provider in the MENA region that offers continuous and prompt support.
O7 therapy: https://o7therapy.com/
Takalam: https://takalamhere.com/

Shezlong has the advantage of having a diverse team of therapists (over 350 therapists from 25 countries), multi-languages covered (English and Arabic), and a wide range of prices, making our mental health services the most affordable in the region. We provide instant support to those in need through on-spot online sessions delivered without the need for prior booking, a unique service among other online service providers.

Shezlong has diversified its revenue channels to comprise B2C customized services, which are provided to consumers, and a commission is derived from every online therapy session, as well as offering B2B subscription-based tailored programs to corporates.
At Shezlong, we were striving for growth, precisely what we have achieved in the last two years with a 5X growth rate. In 2022 given the circumstances, we shifted our focus on profitability, and we managed to reduce our losses by 90% to achieve a profitability point by the middle of next year. Our plan includes a massive geographical expansion which will help us increase our dollar income.

Shezlong has diversified its revenue channels to comprise B2C customized services provided to consumers, a commission derived from every online therapy session, and B2B subscription-based tailored programs to corporates.

At Shezlong, we were striving for growth, and this is precisely what we have achieved in the last two years with a 5X growth rate.
In 2022 given the circumstances, we shifted our focus on profitability, and we managed to reduce our losses by 90% to achieve a profitability point by the middle of next year.

Our plan includes a massive geographical expansion which will help us increase our dollar income.

Shezlong is a very attractive investment opportunity:
- Our valuation is 8 million dollars.
- We are the first and leading online mental therapy platform in the MENA region and Africa.
- We have been focused on enhancing unit economics and are now making an average of 30% commission per session and still improving.
- We focus on the quality of therapy we provide.
- We are a leading data-driven startup in the region.

- We are proceeding according to a clear strategy and a strong vision toward expansion and growth. We aim to make mental wellness a daily routine for every individual around the globe to help build resilient communities, hence, induce a positive impact on the welfare of society through innovative, accessible, and easy-to-use technologies.

- Facing issues with properly disseminating the platform due to issues with internet connectivity and finding quiet places to conduct the sessions.

- Limited demand (purchase) for services from beneficiaries due to economic, social, contextual factors, or personal differences.

- Facing concerns with privacy and sharing personal information.
- Any unanticipated legal constraints while expanding in certain countries.

Accomplished two acceleration programs with the following
- Seedstars in Saudi Arabia in 2019
- 500 startups In San Francisco in 2018

- Acknowledged by the president of Egypt during the world youth forum 2021.
- 111000 Therapy sessions for clients from 85 countries
- 350+ qualified therapists from 25 countries
- Raised fund of $1.5M
- Won first place at EXPOlive competition
- Won first place at Hona Alshabab competition
- 9000 free therapy sessions for women surviving violence
- Providing therapy sessions for hearing and speech impaired people