Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Wysa, a Bengaluru-based AI (artificial intelligence) driven mental health startup, has raised around $2 million (approx ₹15 crore) in Pre-Series A round led by pi Ventures. The participants for the round includes Kae Capital with other investors.

The company plans to use the infuse funds to further strengthen its technology and for expansion.

“Wysa has been co-designed by therapists, users, and designers over hundreds of iterations and 80 million conversations. What people want most is to feel heard, without judgement. Anonymity is the key – people are scared to be seen or judged for what they are going through. We combine the free AI with unlimited support from a qualified therapist, still anonymously, over chat to make it easy to get help,” Jo Aggarwal, co-founder, Wysa said.

Founded by Jo Aggarwal and Ramakant Vempati in 2017, Wysa is an AI-based ‘emotionally intelligent’ bot, a virtual coach that combines empathetic listening with evidence-based therapeutic techniques like CBT, meditation, and motivational interviewing to make mental health accessible at scale.

While, AI and IoT focused pi Ventures was founded by Manish Singhal and Umakant Soni in 2016. The Bengaluru-based tech-focused early stage venture fund invests between $500,000 and $1 million in new age technology ventures solving the real world problems.

“Mental health could very well be the next big epidemic to hit the human race. Training more human therapists will not bridge the massive supply and demand gap. This is where Wysa, powered by an AI engine, comes in. It is scalable and is available for anyone to chat at any time in total privacy,” Manish Singhal, founding partner, pi Ventures, said.

Furthermore, Wysa had raised $1.3 million in seed funding from Kae Capital and angel investors in 2017.

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