[Funding alert] Mental health startup Wysa raises $20 mn in Series B round

Wysa, an AI-based mental health platform, has raised $20 million in its Series B funding round from HealthQuad and British International Investment (BII).

The round also saw participation from existing investors including US-based W Health Ventures, Kae Capital, Google Assistant Investments, and pi Ventures, among others.

The company plans to use the funds to further expand into India, the US and the UK, among other global markets. It will also provide wider usability through multilingual support.

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The Bangalore-based Wysa was founded in 2015 by Jo Aggarwal and Ramakant Vempati, It is an AI-based platform where users with early symptoms of mental health disorders can come to interact with the bot. Thereafter, the platform recommends that the user seek professional help if they need to, among other measures.

“The platform is largely free to use for our B2C users. Monetisation mostly happens through enterprise clients who seek add-on services for their employees via monthly or yearly subscriptions,” said, Ramakant Vempati, co-founder of Wysa.

He said that while 95 percent of its B2C users find solutions to their problems within the platform, that number is only slightly less than 85 percent for users who come through its enterprise customers.

“Around 90 percent of our users have said that they have found the chatbot experience therapeutic. Our app is rated in the range of 4.8 -4.9 (out of 5) on various app stores, which again points to the fact that users benefit from the platform,” he added.

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The company claims that it has a user base of 4.5 million across 65 countries. It also provides its services to firms including Accenture, Colgate-Palmolive, Swiss Re, the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK and the Ministry of Health in Singapore.

The company also claims to have seen its user base at least double in the past year.

"Wysa is developed in India and is marketed globally. The needs for Wysa are present all across, from high-income to low-income countries. Mental health triaging of patients using AI which is fast, effective and non-stigmatising for patients living in unaccepting societies answers a huge need in India, the rest of low-income Asia, Africa as well as the wealthiest countries of the world,” said, Charles Antoine-Janssen, Chief Investment Officer, HealthQuad.

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About Wysa

Wysa is an AI-enabled Life Coach for mental and emotional wellness. The service provides early intervention to high-risk groups through 3 methods: an AI chatbot, a library of evidence-based self-help tools, and messaging-based support from human therapists. Anonymous, empathetic and available 24x7, Wysa covers 10 million lives, and has helped 3 million people in 60+ countries have 100+ million conversations.

Wysa is a global leader in digital mental health, rated 93% by ORCHA, the digital health app evaluation agency used by the NHS, with a 100% on clinical assurance; and recommended in the NHS for the last 18 months. Google has featured Wysa twice as their top mental health app on Google Play for World Mental Health Day 2018 and 19. Wysa has also been showcased at forums like Apple Entrepreneurship Camp, Philips Health Works, and Swiss Re’s Insurtech incubator program.