ACT Grants, Wysa to invest Rs 4 crore for mental health app in Hindi

• ByStartupStory     |    October 11, 2022

Wysa, an artificial intelligence digital platform for mental health, is partnering with ACT Grants to invest Rs 4 crore towards the creation of a mental health app in the Hindi language. In order to increase the accessibility of its services in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, it will also be available via WhatsApp.

The app is anticipated to launch in January 2023, and Wysa, whose backers include Google Assistant Investments, HealthQuad, and British International Investment (BII), is actively seeking additional investors. $20 million was raised by Wysa in July of this year.

In addition to cultural stigma and the shortage of mental health specialists in India, Ramakant Vempati, cofounder of Wysa, told that restricted language options make it difficult for people to get such services.

The majority of mental health services are offered at the tertiary level or in major cities, where you can find therapists who have received English language training and who can provide services in English. As a result, your capacity to get that support is likewise dependent upon or filtered by language, according to Vempati. This may change, he suggested, if access is improved by adding more languages and leveraging distribution channels like WhatsApp.

“To ensure that everyone has access to mental health treatment, we must push beyond linguistic and literacy obstacles if we hope to assist 50 million users by the year 2025. We’ve demonstrated that Wysa therapy is appealing to those who are reluctant to speak up about their mental health issues. Although we still have a long way to go in eradicating mental health stigma in India, this Whatsapp-delivered Hindi version of our widely used app is a terrific place to start, according to Wysa CEO and cofounder Jo Aggarwal.

The software is being developed by a group of five people, and it will go through two stages of development to scalability. Vempati said Wysa is not attempting to profit from this offering.

In addition to the self-help tools in the app and the paid access to therapists, Wysa also provides free AI chatbot support for mental health issues. It works with 20 enterprise partners and seven million employees globally, including Accenture Global, Aetna International, L’Oreal, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, the UK’s National Health Service, and the Ministry of Health in Singapore. It has facilitated more than 400 million conversations in 65 different countries.

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