[Funding alert] AI mental health startup Wysa raises Rs 15 Cr in pre-Series A round led by pi Ventures
Founded by Jo Aggarwal and Ramakant Vempati three years ago, Wysa plans to use this funding to further strengthen its technology and for expansion.
![[Funding alert] AI mental health startup Wysa raises Rs 15 Cr in pre-Series A round led by pi Ventures](https://images.yourstory.com/cs/2/b87effd0-6a66-11e9-ad33-3f8a4777438f/wysa1561005130384.jpg?mode=crop&crop=faces&ar=2%3A1&format=auto&w=1920&q=75)
Wysa, a Bengaluru-based AI conversational agent that helps in improving mental health, on Thursday announced it has raised about $2 million (Rs 15 crore) in pre-Series A round led by pi Ventures, with participation from Kae Capital and other investors. The company plans to use this funding to further strengthen its technology and for expansion.
Speaking on the announcement, Jo Aggarwal, Co-founder, Wysa, said,
“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.”
Wysa Co-founders - Jo Aggarwal and Ramakant Vempati
Wysa had raised $1.3 million in seed funding from Kae Capital and angel investors in 2017.
Founded by Jo Aggarwal and Ramakant Vempati three years ago, 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.
The company has so far helped nearly 1.2 million people in over 30 countries.
Commenting on the investment, Manish Singhal, Founding Partner, pi Ventures, said,
“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.”
On Monday, pi Ventures led a seed round of $1 million in Bengaluru-based SwitchOn, an edge-AI enabled Industrial IoT company. In April, it also backed another Bengaluru-based healthtech startup ten3T with a pre-Series A round along with other investors.
