Exhale slowly and say 'Omvana'

• New app by online publisher aims to spread modern meditation to millions
• Wants to be top app company in Asia in 2 years with focus on health and personal growth market

CALLING your product “the greatest innovation in meditation history in 3,000 years” could be construed as overhyped marketing to many.

But that was the benchmark set by the Mindvalley people when they set out with a mission to spread modern meditation to millions worldwide by making the practice engaging, sophisticated and customizable for an optimal individual experience.

Mindvalley is an online publisher in personal growth established in 2003 and currently boasts an international group of over 100 individuals from more than 30 countries with approximately US$20 million in annual revenue.

The product resulting from that lofty goal is Omvana -- dubbed the “Spotify” of meditation – an app which features thousands of relaxation and sleeping audio tracks, cutting-edge binaural beats and personal growth tracks by the world’s leading health, wellness and inspirational figures.

In an email interview with Digital News Asia (DNA), founder and chief executive officer Vishen Lakhiani (pic), said that the company’s ultimate goal is the “help spread enlightened ideas.”

Vishen holds a degree in Computer Engineering and Electrical Science from the University of Michigan and also taught meditation for five years in New York.

“Meditation is one of the most beneficial, healthy, positive things someone can do in their lives. Yet many do not have a daily meditation practice. With Omvana, we wanted to make the practice cool, practical and give people a new meditation to practise for every single day for the rest of their lives,” he said.

Vishen claimed the company has contracts with top personal growth authors in the industry, such as Lisa Nichols, Bob Proctor and Gabrielle Bernstain, with many new authors signing up every day. Other notable names in its library include famous people like Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Kahlil Gibran, and others such as Jon Gabriel, Laura Silva and Peter Diamandis.

The team has promised to continue growing the store so that users will be able to listen to a new meditation every day for an entire year. In addition to access to a growing library of content, Omvana offers a mixing board, allowing users to combine vocal tracks from guided meditations or famous speeches with ambient sounds, music and more.

Another feature on Omvana allows users to record their own meditation or guided imagery that can be mixed with any track from their personal Omvana library, intended for teachers, coaches, instructors or meditation enthusiasts. These personalised combinations can then be saved so users can create their own experience and access it at anytime.

The latest version amps up the functionality with additions that allow for smoother navigation and provide the option to connect with Facebook and sync multiple devices on the Omvana cloud.

“Right now there any many competitors, but no particular direct ones in this market as for now, because Omvana it's not just an app, it's a ‘platform’,” Vishen said when asked about competition.

“Omvana is a personal growth platform that lets you mix or record your meditation tracks so you always have a new meditation every day. We want to help people to meditate, relax, concentrate, inspire and also sleep better,” he added.

According to him the “secret sauce” behind Omvana’s appeal is that Mindvalley, as a publishing agency, is able to source tracks and content.

“Not to mention a backend track-serving system that allows us to essentially create our own online store of content that can be plugged into any app. Both these innovations took over a year to develop,” he said.

Omvana made its debut on the Apple App Store in February of this year; Mindvalley reports that as of this week, the app has been downloaded 161,764 times, with over one million tracks downloaded during the first 10 weeks, and an average of 6,000 tracks downloaded daily.

Vishen also shared that at launch, the app garnered over 95% 5-star ratings on more than 600 reviews.

“This is part of what keeps us motivated. Every time we read a five-star review ... it's amazing how much our customers love Omvana, We are changing people lives with an app!” he added.

When asked what’s in store for Omvana in the coming months, Vishen said: “We cannot disclose for now, but wait and see -- many great features are coming up in the future.”

Beyond Omvana, which is a fully self-funded venture, Mindvalley has set another high benchmark for itself.

“We are going to delivery many new cool apps in the Health and Personal Growth field that will stand out for great design and functionality, so stay tuned. Our aim is to build one of the top app companies in Asia within 24 months,” said Vishen. 

To find out more about Omvana, click here.

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