Happy Not Perfect, a mental health platform created by founder Poppy Jamie and favored by the beauty industry, has been acquired by JumpStart Games Inc., the company behind the digital game Neopets.
Happy Not Perfect is designed to more easily integrate mental health into daily routines through daily affirmations, brief meditation and audio sessions, and five-minute daily mental health exercises. Over time, the 5-year-old company has made a name for itself within the fashion and beauty industries through various product partnerships with Saks Fifth Avenue and Erno Laszlo. Notably, Jamie is co-founder of accessories and handbag brand Pop & Suki, alongside friend Suki Waterhouse.
Mental health — part of a larger inner-outer beauty and wellness movement — has recently garnered more attraction and discussion within the beauty industry. Brands like Rare Beauty and Benefit Cosmetics have heavily invested in mental health awareness. It is part of a greater understanding of how mental health manifests itself physically, such as through acne, hair loss or premature graying. It’s also a response to the current mental health crisis affecting American youths, a group influential in directing what the beauty industry cares about.
“[There has been] a complete change in the cultural understanding of mental health. Everybody knows mental health is important, that’s not even the conversation anymore,” Jamie said. “Because we can’t see our mind, it is the first thing we forget to look after. We have so much more ingrained behavior around looking after our skin or beauty daily. The idea that you need to meditate 20 minutes a day sets you up for failure, and then you feel guilty. But by combining behaviors that we’re already doing, like skin care [and mindfulness], we’re more likely to do them [both].”
The terms of the deal were not disclosed, and Jamie declined to share outside fundraising to date. Happy Not Perfect offers free services and a premium subscription for $9.99 a month or $59.99 for a one-year subscription. But the business grew by licensing its technology and features to businesses like education tech company Edmodo, which could in turn integrate the services to their own app and platform. Jamie declined to share Happy Not Perfect’s current active userbase because its potential reach and userbase is beyond its own mobile app and difficult to measure. Jamie will remain in an advisory capacity with Happy Not Perfect, focused on content development.
The business-to-business element was attractive to Neopets, which has a largely female audience, heavy in 18- to 40-year-olds. Neopets plans to integrate Happy Not Perfect into its gaming moving forward, making it available to its 69 million accounts; the standalone app will also remain available. With the acquisition, Jamie said Happy Not Perfect will be able to extend its goal of democratizing mental health support.
“Working alongside Happy Not Perfect and the Neopets community, it’s our goal to continue supporting initiatives that promote mental health awareness and stress relief,” said James Czulewicz, president and CEO of JumpStart Games Inc. “Resources like the Happy Not Perfect app are exactly what we want to share and provide to the community.”
