Wysa, an AI-powered digital mental health platform, announced a $5.5 million 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 plans to use the latest capital to support its offering to employers who want to expand their mental health benefits and scale up its sales team and therapist network.
Wysa offers AI-driven mental health support, available both to individuals and through employer benefits programs. Wysa mental health support helps people in dealing with stress, depression, and anxiety with the help of an “emotionally intelligent” bot. According to the company, the bot uses evidence-based cognitive-behavioral techniques, meditation, breathing, mindfulness exercises, and micro-actions to help users build mental resilience skills.
Wysa offers a digital workplace solution that caters to the full spectrum of mental health needs for employers. According to the company, the solution embeds into existing company benefits, such as Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) or external health care provider networks, and can be customized by geography or cohort. The company works with 20 enterprise partners and 7 million employees and partners, including Accenture Global, Aetna International, NHS, L’Oreal, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and the Ministry of Health in Singapore.
According to Wysa, its platform has facilitated over 100 million conversations with more than 3 million users. “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,” said Dr. Pankaj Jethwani, Executive Vice President at W Health Ventures.
Digital mental health companies raised over $600 million in Q1 2021, according to the recently released Mercom’s Q1 2021 Digital Health Funding and M&A Report. Recently, Mantra Health, a telehealth platform focused on mental health, announced an extension of $2 million, bringing its total funding to $5.2 million. Unmind, a provider of an online workplace mental health and wellness platform, has closed a $47 million oversubscribed Series B funding round.
