Zebrain helping all workers unleash their potential through digital coaching

Anna Bloth Karling says she’s worked with a coach for more than a decade, and sees how it can put people back in the driver’s seat in an effective way. Two years ago, as the pandemic was affecting people across the globe, Anna and her husband Gustaf founded Zebrain to help unleash people’s potential in the same way.

Zebrain is a digital coaching-based development platform, aiming to address major challenges to society and corporations. Companies can gain access to research-based coaching programs for their employees; which have, for example, been proven to increase motivation, decrease stress and improve sleeping habits.

Karling says companies have traditionally only invested in coaching for management or executive level teams, because coaching services are typically expensive and hard to scale. She says Zebrain is here to democratize professional and personal development.

“To give leaders in lower levels or all co-workers a completely new opportunity to get access to their own mental power and insights of themselves,” Zebrain CEO Anna Bloth Karling said. “How to actually handle and use their mental strength and their capacity in a completely different way.”

Zebrain uses a behavior profile analysis and algorithms to match an employee with the right certified coach. All of the coaching is done through video or chat inside the platform, with exercises that supplement the sessions. Each user can measure their progress, goals and needs, and also receive feedback from their coach.

Societal and corporate costs associated with stress, sick-leave, demotivation are huge

Karling emphasizes that more people across the world are striving for better ways to deal with stress, motivation, self-leadership and mental health.

The European Union and World Health Organization estimates mental health issues cost Sweden about 5 percent of its GDP every year. Karling says studies clearly show that the mental wellbeing of employees is reflected on an employer’s bottom line.

“A very large portion of that could be handled if we work more proactively,” Karling said. “I think that’s what we see now in the mental wellness industry, and the companies that we work with understand this.”

Zebrain already has customers in several countries and provides coaching in eight languages.

“We have our fantastic coaches via video solutions, which are really great and we know that our customers really love them,” Karling said. 

The company is also focused on continuing to improve upon their digital coaching questions and measurements. Karling says they’re also developing the method they’ve built into the platform at a very high pace moving forward.

Zebrain won the “Audience Award” during Techarenan Challenge 2022 at Almedalen.

“We are extremely proud of winning the Audience Award, which fits with our vision of democratizing mental strength,” Karling said. “The Audience Award really hits home in our world, and we are all proud of winning that particular award.”