clare&me raises €3.7M to advance AI mental health tech

Berlin-based healthtech startup clare&me has secured €3.7M in a funding round led by YZR, a Munich-based healthtech investor, with contributions from Kodori Ventures, a Zug-based private investment firm specializing in early-stage mental health innovations, Material Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on transformative technologies, existing angel investors, and Antler, an early-stage investment firm. Additionally, the company received grant funding from the Development Bank of Berlin, European funds, and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Investment Utilization

‍clare&me plans to use the funds to develop the world’s first Clinical Large Language Model (CLLM), which will be trained by psychotherapists in three key areas:

• Symptom Matching: Pairing user symptoms with evidence-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) exercises.
• Memory Management: Understanding and managing memory within a mental health context.
• Therapeutic Tone: Cultivating a therapeutic tone of voice, essential for effective AI-human interaction in mental healthcare.

The investment will also support the development of a second product focused on automating clinical anamnesis (patient history) interviews. This technology aims to enhance collaboration among clinics, build patient trust, and improve efficiency, addressing the urgent need for digitalization in Germany, where many clinics still rely on paper-based systems.

‍About clare&me

‍Founded in 2021 by Emilia Theye and Celina Messner, a former Google employee, clare&me tackles the pressing shortage of mental health professionals and long waiting times for care. In the UK alone, community mental health services have seen an 11% increase in referrals, with patients waiting up to 18 months for therapy.

clare&me offers clinically validated behavioral therapy techniques through voice-based conversations on smartphones. Users can access the AI assistant via WhatsApp or phone calls for sessions lasting up to 45 minutes—a rare feature in the industry. The platform aims to reduce the stigma around mental health and provide accessible support for conditions like anxiety and depression. While the core user demographic is 35-45 years old, younger users are also drawn to the platform's bot-like interface, which overcomes accessibility challenges often associated with human therapists.

clare&me’s AI assistant redefines human-AI interaction in a conscious, ethical, and evidence-based way. It can discuss mental health issues from a clinically accurate perspective and assess symptoms based on user input. The company has chosen not to integrate additional biometric data at this stage to prioritize user privacy and safety.

Based on the story from Tech Funding News

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