companies

Wysa

AI chatbot for everyday mental health support, blending CBT and mindfulness exercises with an option to add human coaching or therapy on top.

Wysa began in Bangalore in 2015, when co-founders Jo Aggarwal and Ramakant Vempati set out to build a private, judgment-free first stop for people who weren't ready or able to see a therapist. The company (originally operating as Touchkin eServices) built a text-based chatbot, represented by a cartoon penguin, that walks users through cognitive behavioral therapy, dialectical behavior therapy and mindfulness techniques based on what they type in. Wysa now runs a hybrid model: the free chatbot handles day-to-day check-ins and structured exercises, while a paid tier adds asynchronous text-based coaching with a human professional, and an enterprise arm sells the tool to employers, health insurers and public health systems, including several NHS Talking Therapies services in the UK. The clinical content is built with input from psychiatrists and has been the subject of peer-reviewed studies on anxiety and depression symptoms. Headquartered today in Boston with engineering and clinical teams still based in Bangalore, Wysa has raised roughly $35 million from investors including Google Assistant Investments, W Health Ventures and Accenture, plus additional grant funding, and reports tens of millions of conversations logged across more than 30 countries.

Founded

2015

Headquarters

Boston, United States

Sector

consumer