Youper Wants Everyone on the Planet to Have an AI Emotional Health Assistant
Youper Raises $3 Million in Seed Funding from Goodwater Capital to use Artificial Intelligence to Change the Way People Take Care of Their Minds.
San Francisco, CA – June 11, 2019 — Youper announced today that it has secured $3 million in seed funding from Goodwater Capital with the purpose to provide everyone on the planet with an Emotional Health Assistant. Youper helps people monitor and improve their mental health by leveraging advanced AI to understand the user and deliver personalized psychological techniques to fit each person’s emotional needs wherever they are, whenever they need it.
Based on testing of more than a million users, more than 80% of the users experience a reduction in negative moods after just one conversion.
“Everyone faces emotional challenges, and sometimes they can get really heavy. One in four people in the world faces disabling emotional health issues, like anxiety and depression. Whether someone is dealing with anxiety or depression, or just hoping to become the best version of him or herself, we created Youper to provide extra support for each person’s journey towards happiness,” said Dr. Jose Hamilton, psychiatrist, co-founder, and CEO of Youper. “As we frequently note, great people always have an assistant by their side, and our Emotional Health Assistant gives users a similar boost. It’s like having a mix of personal therapist, confidante, and advisor discreetly tucked in your pocket to help you cope with whatever comes your way and support you in building good mental health habits.”
Youper’s key features include:
- Quick conversations that can change your day: Youper applies different psychological techniques and transforms them into quick and insightful conversations tailored to the moment.
- Symptom monitoring: Youper screens for anxiety, depression, social anxiety, and other mental health symptoms. It also allows you to monitor whether you are improving or worsening over time so that you can intervene if necessary and have more informed conversations with your doctor or health provider.
- Beautiful mood tracker: Youper uses the conversations to track your mood, discover factors influencing your mood, and generates elegant graphics to show mood patterns over time.
- Personality test: Youper helps you uncover your personality type, know more about yourself and understand what makes you tick.
Youper’s concept came from the mind of a psychiatrist, a software engineer and a designer, who co-founded the company with the mission that everyone should have access to the help they need to overcome emotional challenges. Youper was created to be a self-care tool that can be used every day by anyone.
Nearly 45 million people in the U.S. alone currently suffer from mental health issues, and studies show it can take up to 10 years to find an effective solution for someone suffering from those conditions. Youper’s early findings are promising and show a huge potential to tackle this enormous problem. “We’re partnering with our users to collect anonymous data on people’s mental health. The amount of data is unprecedented, and we’re eager to continue our research to validate Youper as an effective mental health tool and a resource for understanding the human mind” said Dr. Andrea Niles, Clinical Product & Research Lead at Youper.
The assistant supports users to change thinking patterns and behaviors, and improve emotional stability by incorporating scientific principles from various psychological therapies. It applies AI to personalize the experience for each user in an effort to optimize Youper’s effectiveness.
“Addressing mental and emotional health is one of the biggest issues we face as a society, and Youper provides an on-ramp to help people feel happier and better understood,” said Chi-Hua Chien, co-founder and managing partner of Goodwater Capital. “The Youper team has combined the best of science, technology, and design to empower anyone to get the assistance they need. We want to help Youper reach as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, so that everyone can experience a more fulfilling life.”
Although Youper constantly evolves based on conversations with users, it does not provide diagnosis or professional care. Nevertheless, users can count on Youper to help them monitor and improve their emotional health and have more informed conversations with doctors and therapists.
The Youper Emotional Health Assistant is available for free from the Apple App Store or Google Play.
About Youper
Youper is an AI-powered Assistant to monitor and improve emotional health. Created by a team of experts led by psychiatrist Dr. Jose Hamilton, Youper utilizes AI to personalize various techniques to fit users’ individual needs. The company was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA. To learn more, please visit www.youper.ai.