[Deeptech funding] Wysa closes $5.5M Series A to bridge the gap in employee mental health

Wysa, an AI-powered mental health platform, announced a $5.5M Series A financing round led by W Health Ventures, a Boston-based digital health investor. Others participating in the round include the Google Assistant Investment program, and existing investors pi Ventures and Kae Capital. Wysa will use this capital to support its offering to employers who want to expand their mental health benefits, as well as scale up Wysa’s sales team and therapist network.

The startup raised pre-Series A funding in 2019, led by pi Ventures, along with Kae Capital and others. With the latest infusion, the Boston and Bengaluru based startup has raised close to $ 9 Mn in funding so far.

Wysa’s internal data shows that 60% of the working population struggle with negative thoughts, anxiety, isolation or sleep issues, but they prefer to improve their situation themselves rather than seeking clinical support. Wysa offers a clinically approved, responsive, AI-guided safe space that listens like a person, and scales like a product.

“Wysa’s explainable AI – combining natural language understanding with clinical assurance – helps everyone build skills to manage their mental health in the new normal.” said Moez Kaderali, program manager for the Google Assistant Investments Program. “The Google Assistant Investments program was launched in 2018 for early-stage startups that share our passion for the digital assistant ecosystem, helping to push new ideas forward and advance the possibilities of what digital assistants can do. In the post-Covid world, managing our mental health is no longer a medical issue, but a part of everyone’s daily routine. We all need a space to vent, to feel heard, and to learn to manage negative thoughts, sleep, and anxiety.”

For organizations, Wysa customizes its support to employee needs with complete anonymity, and also gives real-time population-level insights related to their employees’ mental wellbeing. In addition, Wysa offers daily support from a dedicated wellbeing coach. For large organizations, Wysa’s solution is unique in its ability to integrate with their existing wellness resources. This year, Accenture rolled out Wysa to 500,000 employees across 53 countries including India.

“When organisations roll out Wysa, what surprises them is the insight they get about usage, while still maintaining employee privacy. For example, most people start with group meditations or sleep routines, and about 30-40% need help with negative thoughts and emotions,” said Wysa co-founder and CEO Jo Aggarwal. “For the first time, employers use data to understand how the mental wellbeing of their employees is constantly changing, and how it compares against benchmarks. Today, every employer is looking for a solution that goes beyond traditional EAP. This investment allows us to bring the next generation of workforce wellbeing solutions to organizations across the country.”

“We are impressed with Wysa’s uncompromising clinical safety and unparalleled patient-centricity. It maintains a near-perfect rating from approximately 100,000 reviews resulting from over 100 million conversations,” said Dr. Pankaj Jethwani, Executive Vice President at W Health Ventures. “As we enter the second year of the pandemic, so many people are struggling and seeking mental health support. Wysa is an example of how technology is helping millions of people access everyday mental health support and self-care tools without being gated by a clinical diagnosis. We are thrilled to deepen our relationship to support Wysa’s next phase of growth.”

Manish Singhal, Founding Partner, pi Ventures said, “With Mental Health becoming another pandemic in the making globally, there is an acute shortage of qualified mental health professionals to take care of the growing demand. On the back of a disruptive AI engine trained for mental health conversations, Wysa brings an effective and cutting-edge approach to solve this problem at global scale. This is what we love doing at pi - solve a global problem on the back of a differentiated technology. We are super privileged to be associated with Jo and Ramakant in their journey to making a difference to the world and wish them all the very best.’

Over 90% of users say Wysa helps them feel better after just one session, and over 75% of users have more than five sessions. Wysa’s HIPAA compliant platform has facilitated over 100 million conversations with more than 3 million users, and covers over 10 million lives in 65+ countries worldwide.