The pitch sounded simple: a daily mental health toolkit from a company with Selena Gomez's name on it. A group of investors bought that pitch, putting nearly $1.2 million into the startup.
The startup is Wondermind, which launched in 2021 with the goal of giving people daily tools to support their mental health. The investors who backed it now say the company did not keep its promises.
In a complaint filed August 13, 2026, they are suing Gomez and her mother over the business. The investors claim Gomez committed securities fraud by misleading them, and also broke her contract.
Securities fraud is a serious legal claim. At its core, it accuses someone of lying or hiding important facts to get investors to hand over money.
Breach of contract is a different charge. It says Gomez signed an agreement and then did not do what the agreement required.
The investors want their money back plus their legal costs. Forbes was the first outlet to report the lawsuit, and Wondermind has not responded to requests for comment.
The lawsuit describes a company that made promises it could not keep. It says Gomez "purported to sign a contract obligating her to perform and then ignored it."
It also says Wondermind gave investors false information about its finances and exaggerated how involved Gomez really was. The partnerships the company promoted never existed, the initiatives never came together, and the app was never built.
The app meant to deliver those tools never made it to users. The investors say the company kept them in the dark for years.
They did not learn how serious the problems were until September 2025, when The Cut published an article about the company. The lawsuit says that article finally revealed what was happening inside Wondermind.
The complaint is blunt about the silence. "For three years, while the Company quietly collapsed around them, not one of its founders, officers, or directors said a word to the investors whose money was funding the collapse."
The case is just beginning, and a lawsuit is only an accusation until a judge or jury says otherwise. So far, the public has only heard one side of the story.
Still, the story is a useful window into startup investing. Public companies have to file financial reports that anyone can read, but private startups do not have to share nearly as much.
That gap leaves room for big promises and big disappointments. The investors in this case say they were left in the dark for three years while their money funded the collapse.
As more celebrities lend their names to startups, these kinds of lawsuits may become more common. A famous founder can bring attention, but that attention does not change the basic rules of business.
A famous name and a good story are not the same as hard information. The people suing Wondermind say they learned that the hard way.
Every investment is a bet on the people running the show. A recognizable name can make that bet feel safer, but it does not change what a company actually delivers.
In this case, the investors say the company did not deliver what it promised.