Making the Case for Mindfulness

Future of Cities and Cho Ventures invest in OpenSeed to Bring Tech-Enabled Meditation Pods to Millions

An engaged, healthy, and mindful workforce can truly achieve anything. But now imagine you are a company committed to creating mental wellbeing for your employees, but do not have the room or resources to build or transform a space that will help them achieve this goal in your workplace. That is where OpenSeed solves this problem.

Future of Cities in partnership with Cho Ventures, LP (Tony Cho’s family office) is excited to announce our investment in OpenSeed. Backed by personal transformation visionary Deepak Chopra and world-renowned designer Yves Behar, OpenSeed has developed tech-enabled, prefabricated meditation pods for the workplace (and other public environments) that integrate sound, music, lighting, and aromatherapy to quickly induce calm and facilitate higher states of awareness.

The investment in OpenSeed adds another impact-focused start-up to our roster which champions and catalyzes conscious companies, founders, and allies in the climate, mobility, mindfulness, prop, smart city, and Web3 tech ecosystem focused on ESG outcomes shaping more equitable and resilient cities.

“Supporting OpenSeed to bring meditation to millions of people in busy environments that normally foster frenetic energy and a constant state of stress aligns with our mission to improve living and working in the urban built environment,” said Tony Cho, Future of Cities founder. “The pod blends function and form flawlessly. I believe in the vision of OpenSeed founder Jonathan Marcoschamer and the chance to join this company on their journey is an exciting opportunity.”

In addition, OpenSeed will be joining Future of Cities at our new co-working space and innovation complex in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood, which is scheduled to open later this year.

“We are honored to have Future of Cities and Cho Ventures on board our mission to bring meditation pods to millions of people in the workplace and other environments.  Although meditation is a powerful tool for alleviating stress and elevating mental health, many companies are lagging behind in creating the proper spaces for it in the workplace. In fact, only 17% of the workplace employees have access to relaxation rooms, including spaces conducive to meditation,” said Jonathan Marcoschamer, CEO & Founder, OpenSeed.

Marcoschamer added, “Tony Cho and his team are the type of value-added investors whom we continue to seek in order to build a strong foundation for our company. Together with strategic investors and well-known partners like Deepak Chopra, we have launched an equity crowdfunding campaign on WeFunder to provide anyone with the opportunity to invest, join us on this journey, and benefit from the upside.”

The OpenSeed investment follows our backing of Dance, a premium e-bike service that aims to make cities more sustainable, active, and connected. Future of Cities is committed to incubating and accelerating founders, companies and technologies that are can rapidly innovate the built environment.