RADICAL REALIST

Sonia Kaurah was born and raised in Australia to Malaysian parents. Throughout her life, she struggled to find a therapist who could relate to her cultural background.  

“Cut your parents out of your life,” therapists would say, unable or unwilling to consider the complexities of parent-child relationships often faced by Asian immigrant families.  

Her experience took on a whole new dimension when Kaurah moved to Scandinavia to advise social entrepreneurs on how to raise capital and build and scale their business ideas. It was in Stockholm that Kaurah first experienced direct, overt racism, when she went for an asthma check only to be told by a nurse that her skin was “dirty.” Stunned, Kaurah turned to friends from minority backgrounds to process the incident. She decided to seek professional help from an American woman therapist, hoping that she might be more attuned to understanding the everyday traumas people of colour face in the West. Kaurah left her first session feeling like she had just paid to spend an hour educating her therapist. 

The more Kaurah spoke to friends and peers, the more she realized her problem was common. People of colour, who receive treatment for mental health at just half the rate of white people in the UK, are also walking away from counselling more often, because they struggle to find a therapist that understands their cultural or religious experiences.  

Leveraging her background in venture capital and social entrepreneurship, Kaurah launched Tala Thrive, “an AI-enabled mental health platform offering culturally competent care.” While there are mental health platforms catering to women, the LGBTQIA+ community, and the Black community, Kaurah says Tala Thrive is the only one in the UK dedicated to matching patients with culturally competent therapists on a wider scale. For example, Tala includes Ukrainian, Greek Orthodox, Italian, and Irish counsellors on its platform and also allows patients to view counsellors’ lived experiences, like interracial relationships or intergenerational trauma.  

Unusually, the platform also features both counsellors and coaches, creating an ecosystem for referrals to happen easily across the two disciplines. Kaurah says coaching also offers many men a less stigmatised way to access support and open up. 

Kaurah’s biggest struggle so far? Finding aligned investors. Kaurah was shocked to find herself educating investors about systemic racism. “I’ve had to hang up on certain investors because of their lack of understanding,” Kaurah says. She recalls being asked when she’s planning on getting pregnant and told to come back when she gets ‘traction’ for the idea, or ten paying customers.  

“Ten paying customers? We had a waiting list of over 300 people with zero paid advertising. That’s when I realized how little faith investors have in female entrepreneurs,” says Kaurah, adding that only 2% of VC funding goes to women, and of that, just a fraction to women of colour.  

“I launched a crowdfund to prove a point – that the demand is here for the idea. We’ve now exceeded our target of £150,000 and have raised £220,000. Beyond the crowdfund, Kaurah has also found her way to a group of aligned individual investors, including VC investors (investing personally), ex-Airbnb and ex-Amazon angels, and the current Chief of Staff at Monzo. 

Kaurah is aiming to close a £300,000 pre-seed round in the coming weeks, of which £80,000 remains for investors above £10,000 (with SEIS relief available).  

Tala Thrive is currently testing its product and is set to launch in two months, offering counselling, life coaching, and executive coaching sessions. To join the waiting list, click here. To inquire about investing, please email Sonia at sonia@talathrive.com.