Google Assistant invests in Indian mental health AI app Wysa

Indian artificial-intelligence (AI) based mental health app Wysa said that it has received an undisclosed amount of investment from the Google Assistant fund.

“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. 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 in a release issued by Wysa.

Wysa had also topped the list of best apps in India in 2020. Wysa is a mobile application where users talk to an AI-powered bot for managing anxiety and sleep, or pay and talk to a therapist.


In a previous interview, the app’s founder Ramakant Vempati had said that they don’t deal with severe mental illnesses, but instead deal with early-stage supportive therapy. The app claims to have around 3 million users in sixty-five countries. Around 80-85% of their users are abroad, and therapists in India service these users – all via text, and anonymously.

“We set out to solve for all our mental health, and have been able to show that it is possible to create access at scale that is low cost and clinically assured. In the next phase, we will go beyond the barriers of literacy and language, using Wysa on voice with local languages to create access to mental health for the next billion. In this vision, Google Assistant Fund is our ideal partner”, said Jo Aggarwal, co-founder and chief executive of Wysa.

Wysa also works with healthcare partners like the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS), Cincinnati Children's Hospital and insurance companies. It was also launched nationally by the Government of Singapore as a public service. Wysa was also amongst the first batch of startups in the Google For Startups launchpad program in India in 2018.