The problem
Mental-health need in Palestine vastly outstrips supply: statistics cited by Prosper Global show only 10% of Palestinians needing care receive it. Services are limited, disorganised, and expensive — and stigma plus low awareness keep many, especially women and teenagers, from seeking help at all.
How it works
Hakini — “tell me” in Arabic — matches users through its website and mobile app to therapists providing confidential one-on-one online sessions, and guides them on self-help journeys built on evidence-based exercises adapted for Arab culture by Arab mental-health professionals. Co-founder and Co-CEO Sondos Mleitat, a Birzeit architectural-engineering graduate with a background in investment and design thinking, started Hakini after her own struggle to find therapy; co-founder Majd Manadre built it with her from a pandemic-era idea through Gaza Sky Geeks’ hackathon and 16-week pre-seed accelerator.
Pain points
Widespread untreated trauma and anxiety, stigma that punishes people for seeking care, almost no Arabic-language digital options, and existing providers founder Sondos Mleitat describes as disorganised, expensive, and disappointing.
Business model
Core revenue from one-on-one online therapy plus self-help content, layered with social-mission extensions: free hotlines and psychological-first-aid efforts run with partners such as BuildPalestine and Jawwal-Paltel Group.
Challenges
Leading a female-led startup in a stigmatised field where the founder says she is often not taken seriously; reaching a team split across connectivity blackouts; and holding care affordable while financial rails and investor access stay restricted for Palestinian founders.
Funding
- Raised: a grant won through the Gaza Sky Geeks Startup Accelerator after winning its ‘Hack the Crisis Palestine’ hackathon (2020); no priced round disclosed, so amounts are omitted.
- Backing: Gaza Sky Geeks pre-seed acceleration (mentorship, product testing, grant) and Halcyon’s 2022 MENA Intensive for founder Sondos Mleitat.
Latest — Nov 2023
Hakini was operating in Palestine and across the MENA region when StartupScene profiled it in November 2023: Mleitat described struggling to reach her Gaza team over failing connections, and Hakini joined BuildPalestine and Jawwal-Paltel Group to set up free hotlines delivering psychological first aid for people in Gaza.