Touchkin, a predictive care start-up which developed an artificial intelligent (AI) platform Wysa to address mental health issues is now working to raise a pre-series A round this year. The company completed an angel round of US$ 400,000 (Rs. 2.7 crore) in January 2016.

Wysa is an ‘emotionally intelligent’ chatbot which reacts to the emotions expressed and uses evidence-based cognitive-behavioral techniques and micro-actions to help a person feel better. The company aims to maximise the over 2 billion smart-phone users, to identify and treat behavioral issues.

Being product and tech-led, we have used partnerships to acquire users and complete trials. Wysa helps manage moods and deal with day-to-day stress better. It understands the user, gives first-level evidence based mood related behavioral support and connects to a counsellor, JO Aggarwal and Ramakant Vempati, founders, Touchkin told Pharmabiz in an email.

The platform can be used for ‘non-mental health’ like lifestyle disorders. Mental health techniques reduce stress, create behaviour change and engage patients especially for lifestyle diseases. It makes them feel less anxious, improve activity, or even quit smoking.

The idea is to create a personalized experience. It is definitely the first emotionally intelligent platform using AI and machine learning (ML) to provide a personalized happiness. It has done well in the last few months as a beta version. We are now adding hundreds of users every day on word of mouth referrals, they added.

“Mental health well being is for everyone, not just for patients. We want to take it out of a ‘specialist’ mode where people see themselves as mental health cases and consult psychologists. Instead, we go to high risk groups and use these techniques to help them. For instance, depression is twice likely diabetics and increases healthcare costs by four to five times”, informed Aggarwal.

In its pilot project, Touchkin helped reduce depression by 50 per cent and enable medical adherence significantly. The company is building the technology into Apollo Sugar Clinics app, to make diabetes less stressful and improve outcomes, said Vempati.

At its pilot project in Aurangabad, with Dr Archana Sarda, founder, Udaan that supports over 500 underprivileged people with Type 1 diabetes, patients felt supported and engaged. The 60 per cent patients suffering from moderate to severe depression, saw it reduce by 50 per cent during the study.

Globally, there are some offerings that integrate chatbots with healthcare, but none that integrate behavioural health, MI and AI the to enhance patient outcomes, they said.

For Touchkin, the primary revenue source is the payors in the international healthcare system. Use of AI and ML in pharma marketing and patient support is promising. “Monetization in the India market is difficult. This led Touchkin to focus on pilot projects and focus on the international market for revenue. Funding interest for start-ups with  innovative technology to solve healthcare problems was substantial”, they added.