Microsoft’s AI4A Infuses More Funds In AI-Powered Mental Health Startup IWill

Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered mental health startup IWill has received an undisclosed amount of funding from tech major Microsoft’s ‘AI for Accessibility’ (AI4A) programme. 

The fresh funds will be allocated to boost the startup’s flagship product ‘IWill GITA’, a controlled generative-AI mental health companion in Hindi.

In 2022, Microsoft funded IWill under the same programme to accelerate and enable the development of IWill GITA in Hindi. 

The mental health companion is based on the CBT Azure OpenAI LLM-based model and is designed to help people recover from mild forms of mental health issues. 

Founded in 2015 by Shipra Dawar, IWill is an digital and AI healthtech startup that provides mental health wellness assistance along with reproductive health and climate health awareness. 

IWill GITA’s pilot was launched in January this year. The startup aims to provide access to 615 Mn Hindi-speaking population with mental health support in rural and urban India at affordable rates.

Commenting on the funding, Dawar said, “Microsoft’s immense support was invaluable in helping us create IWill GITA and we feel honoured that the basis of its success and future vision, Microsoft AI4A extended the funding and support.” 

Apart from IWill GITA, the startup also runs ‘ePsyClinic‘ which provides free of cost mental wellbeing programmes that address suicide prevention in students, care for domestic abuse victims, mental wellbeing help for blue collar workers, small business owners and self-employed people. 

IWill counts the likes of the Haryana and Rajasthan governments, Maharashtra State Innovation Society (MSIS), Urban Company, and Zomato among its partners. The partnership allows the startup to provide effective, high-quality and affordable health services to people.

IWill said that the support from Microsoft’s AI4A was instrumental in developing its flagship product GITA. 

AI4A aims to harness the power of AI to help people in need. In India, Microsoft has also backed low-cost refreshable braille display producer Vembi, document accessibility portal I-Stem, sign language translation assistant AI4Bharat under the programme. 

Mental health crisis is a big issue in India. About 1.64 Lakh Indians died by suicide in 2021 and the national suicide rate was around 12 per lakh population. To address these challenges, a number of mental health startups, including Wysa, LISSUN, Shyft (formerly Mindhouse), Sukoon, Innerhour, Trijog, YourDOST, Mitsu, have come up over the last few years. These startups leverage technology to provide assistance to those in need.

Many of these startups have also managed to bag funding from investors. Earlier this year,  Amaha Health bagged INR 50 Cr in a funding round led by Fireside Ventures to scale up its mental health offerings.