companies

Youper

AI chatbot for daily mood check-ins that applies CBT techniques to help users reframe thoughts and track anxiety and depression symptoms over time.

Youper was founded in San Francisco in 2016 by Jose Hamilton Vargas, a physician, and Diego Dotta, with the goal of putting basic cognitive behavioral therapy techniques into a conversational format people would actually use daily rather than open once and abandon. The app asks users a short set of check-in questions each day, uses natural language processing to interpret free-text answers, and responds with CBT-style reframing prompts. Over time, Youper layered in validated clinical questionnaires for anxiety and depression (such as GAD-7 and PHQ-9 style assessments) so users can see trend lines rather than just anecdotal mood notes, and the company has published data suggesting meaningful average reductions in self-reported anxiety and depression scores among regular users. The company is backed by roughly $5 million in funding from investors including Goodwater Capital and has stayed a small, focused team rather than expanding into enterprise or clinical partnerships the way some competitors have, keeping its focus on the direct-to-consumer app.

Founded

2016

Headquarters

San Francisco, United States

Sector

consumer