How A Wearable Device Is Taking On India’s Mental Health Crisis

How A Wearable Device Is Taking On India’s Mental Health Crisis

SUMMARY

The startup finds its genesis in Bhargava’s story when he was diagnosed with Lupus, an autoimmune disease, at the age of 20

The founders are already sitting on investment commitments worth INR 6.5 Cr. This fund infusion includes INR 2 Cr from government bodies, including MeitY Startup Scheme, NGIS, and BIRAC

Within just 10 days of the airing of the episode, InnerGize received more than 1,200 orders, generating sales of more than INR 60 Lakh. As of now, they are sitting on an order book of 1,300 devices

When the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc, bringing the world to its knees, many of us understood the importance of a sound mind and a healthy body. But the realisation soon perished for many when the world returned to business as usual — hungrier, greedier, gluttonous.   

While two of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, famine and death, danced unabated during the pandemic, the third, war, was soon to give a final blow. Well, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which shook the economies worldwide, must not be forgotten.

Further, what had to be an era of post-pandemic happiness, freedom and prosperity soon got plagued first with the fear of dying young (think the rising cases of heart attacks post-pandemic) and then debates of work-life balance and toiling round-the-clock. 

Amid this, inflation continued to break the back of the middle class, and education and healthcare costs continue to break new records. Sub-standard quality of air, food and even medicines is another area that has been taking its toll on the health and, therefore, the longevity of the young.   

While there is a lot more that stresses how the quality of life has only degraded after the pandemic, a mental health survey of 2024 reveals that more than 53% of urban Indians experience high-stress levels (often hypertension) in their daily lives. The survey further states that 22% of urban Indians face such situations multiple times during the day.  

However, the only silver lining here is that Indians today acknowledge this and have started talking about it. Notably, they are uncomfortable being paranoid and stressed and hence trying everything in their capacity to break free from these shackles. 

Amid the current scheme of things, InnerGize claims to cure mental health issues with the use of technology. Founded by serial entrepreneur Siddhant Bhargava, and Shalmali Kadu and Mitansh Khurana, InnerGize utilises a cutting-edge technology, Neuroacoustic Vagal Modulation, which gently stimulates the vagus nerve, known as the body’s natural relaxation switch. 

The venture offers a wearable device that sends calming signals to the brain’s relaxation centres, helping reduce stress, anxiety, and other health issues. 

However, what’s interesting about this startup is that it has already started receiving hundreds of orders before its launch scheduled for April 2025.

Now, one may think that the founders must be burning too much on advertising before their official launch. However, this is not the case. The startup’s claim to fame has come on the back of the early release of a Shark Tank episode, featuring them. (More on this later)   

Moving on, at a time when a brigade of global innovations, such as Neurovalens and GammaCore, has emerged to conquer the mental health problems among humans, India is in the nascent stages of tech-driven advancements in the mental wellness space. 

However, the sector is rapidly gaining investors’ interest, and many well-funded players are emerging in this space. Some of the key examples are Mave Health, Wysa, LISSUN, Shyft (formerly Mindhouse), Sukoon, Trijog, YourDOST, and Mitsu.

In this landscape, let’s glean into InnerGize’s playbook, its background story and what has led to its early fame, even before its official launch.

How The Seeds Of InnerGize Were Sown?

The startup finds its genesis in Bhargava’s story when he was diagnosed with Lupus, an autoimmune disease, at the age of 20.

“I was still so young, and I didn’t have a clear sense of self. The disease left me physically disfigured and emotionally drained,” he said, adding that it was the beginning.

A few years later, Bhargava was diagnosed with stage II thyroid cancer, which only made his mental health worse. He also began to exhibit symptoms of ADHD

Speaking with Inc42, Bhargava (now a cancer survivor) said he knows firsthand how stressful life can be when mental health issues go unaddressed. With this realisation, he decided to create a mental health wellness startup.

One of their first devices was designed to offer 10-minute tailored sessions for better sleep, relaxation, anxiety relief, mood stabilisation, enhanced focus, ADHD support, migraine management, pain relief, and impulse control. The device’s portable design allows users to integrate it seamlessly into their daily lives.

Meanwhile, as they were planning to finalise a launch date, they got an opportunity to feature on Shark Tank India. However, as luck would have it, their tech went viral with the early release of the episode that featured them.

This caught the founders by surprise, as before they knew it, queries for their products started dropping in. This made them release their products and website early (just last month). 

Although the early release has posed certain challenges for the founders, they have been able to secure more than 1K before the official launch of their mental health brand.

The founders are already sitting on investment commitments worth INR 6.5 Cr. This fund infusion includes INR 2 Cr from government bodies such as the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS), MeitY Startup Scheme, NGIS, and BIRAC. The startup is in the final stages of talks to raise INR 4.5 Cr from a Singapore-based early-stage investor. 

Shark Tank was initially set to invest INR 1 Cr for a 4.2% equity stake. However, to accommodate other investors within the INR 4.5 Cr round, the founder renegotiated the deal, securing INR 30 Lakh for a 1.4% equity instead. The founders want to use the funds for manufacturing, clinical trials, R&D, and the official product launch in April 2025.

Second-Time Entrepreneur Bhargavas’ First Innings

While InnerGize was inspired by the cofounder’s personal health challenges, it was his experience with his first startup, Food Darzee, that turned the idea into reality and set the stage for the journey. Launched in 2017, Food Darzee is a food and nutrition company that delivers healthy, customised meal plans at the customer doorstep.

“Back then, I felt I was too young and lacked the business acumen to confidently start something on my own. My cofounders taught me how to run a business. It was like a drawing board and I learned how to paint,” the cofounder said.

According to the cofounder, many key takeaways from Food Darzee helped shape the foundation of InnerGize. Some of these takeaways included understanding what motivates people and how to bring out their best. 

“Leading a team of 550, including many blue-collar workers, provided valuable lessons in HR,” he said, adding that he learned early on that sustainability over scalability helps businesses in the long run.  

After successfully running the startup for over seven years and scaling it to an annual revenue of INR 60 Cr, Bhargava realised that Food Darzee could sustain itself without his active involvement. Feeling that his expertise was no longer crucial there, he decided to move on.

From there he started exploring new avenues, and mental health has been on his mind for a long time because of his personal challenges. 

During this time, he started creating content related to health and wellness and launched Front Bench Marketing Private Ltd., a boutique talent management agency that would serve doctors and wellness creators on social media. 

This initiative was aimed at creating a ready distribution network for future product launches by building a strong community of health and wellness creators, which ultimately set the stage for InnerGize. He scaled this channel to Lakhs of followers.

Meanwhile, he met his current cofounders, Kadu and Khurana, at an event. “At the time, Kadu was running a startup, Aivara, and Khurana was still in college,” Bhargava said. 

This was when the trio discovered their shared interest in mental health. 

“We realised there had been little technological disruption in the mental health space, so we decided to do some research and started looking at previous technologies that have already existed and tried to figure out a way to make them better,” the founder said.

During this time, they came across vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), a 30-year-old technology for medical use. Notably, VNS devices are implanted in the body to treat conditions like epilepsy, depression, and cluster headaches. 

In India, VNS procedures are performed at specialised neurosurgery departments to help patients with intractable epilepsy, treatment-resistant depression, and stroke rehabilitation. However, according to the founder, it was invasive and primarily used in severe cases.

Hence, the cofounders decided to make it non-invasive by miniaturising the entire product. After testing the first prototype, the cofounder was impressed with its effectiveness and saw the potential for a large-scale business. 

Recognising the size of the problem and the demand for the product, they decided to register the company in July 2023. Since then four prototypes have been made before their final product, InnerGize Gen 1.

What’s In The InnerGize Tech Stack

InnerGize Generation 1 is a wearable device, powered by its proprietary Neuro Vagal Modulation technology. Designed to improve mental wellness, the device is compact and can fit comfortably behind the ear.

It offers tailored 10-minute sessions to address a variety of needs, including stress relief, anxiety management, mood swings, migraine, sleep, focus, ADHD, pain control, and more. The device works through a combination of hardware and an intuitive app, calibrating different modes for each session. This allows users to actively engage with their mental health improvement journey.

The device claims to offer stress relief anytime and anywhere in just 10 minutes. It is clinically tested on over 1,000 patients and backed by more than 100 psychologists, psychiatrists, and physicians. The startup claims to deliver proven results, including a 36% reduction in stress within the first three sessions and a 32% decrease in anxiousness within 10 minutes of use. 

The device is accompanied by reusable smart patches with electrodes that magnetically attach to the module, making it easy to use and carry. The product is priced at INR 12,400 and is currently available for pre-order at INR 5,000-6,000.

Bhargava told Inc42 that creating hardware was the biggest challenge for the startup, as India lacks the infrastructure to make such hardware. “Therefore, we established our own manufacturing facility in Delhi, which is capable of producing 5,000 units per month,” the founder said, adding that perfecting the device took 7-8 months of research and development, followed by another 7-8 months of prototyping and fine-tuning the hardware.

InnerGize Next Move?

While the founders managed most of the product development, they expressed their disappointment about having to rush their timeline due to the Shark Tank episode. However, the early exposure has worked well for the venture. 

Within just 10 days of the airing of the episode, InnerGize received more than 1,200 orders, generating sales of more than INR 60 Lakh. As of now, they are sitting on an order book of 1,300 devices.

According to the cofounder, they are still in the early stage and are not yet ready to finalise the product pricing. However, they are highly confident in the product and have already begun working on Generation 2.

“The goal for the next iteration, InnerGize Generation 2, is to make the product even smaller and integrate new features, such as inbuilt stress-tracking capabilities using Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) technology. This technology will provide real-time insights into stress levels, offering a more accurate measure of stress than current wearables like smartwatches and rings, which only track physical data,” the founder said.

Looking ahead, the startup aims to achieve an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of $10 Mn within the next 18 months. It is also eyeing international expansion into the Gulf and Southeast Asia by the end of the year.

While it is still early to assess the startup’s long-term growth, strong investor interest signals significant potential. With the Indian mental health sector projected to breach the $1.16 Bn mark by 2025, InnerGize’s story will be one to watch.

[Edited By Shishir Parasher]

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.

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