Harper Care preps up with $6.5 million dosage to boost AI-based mental healthcare

With over one billion people worldwide struggling with their mental health, London-based Harper Care has raised $6.5 million to address the issue. The round was led by Brydge Capital

Traditional mental health solutions such as conventional therapy typically require a diagnosis of illness. They are also expensive and hard to access, generally limiting their use to react to a crisis. Founded by Ved Sharma and Mithi Thaya, the startup aims to change the scenario with its delivery of hyper-personalised mental health support.

The health tech aims to make mental healthcare more objective, affordable and preventative through molecular biology and technology for earlier accurate detection. Its computational algorithm delivers to each patient personalised evidence-based interventions that incrementally alter behaviour and improve outcomes.

Dr Ved Sharma, founder and chief medical officer, Harper, said: “We aim to reach a much wider group with our precision medicine approach to preventative mental healthcare. Due to the widespread negative impacts of elevated stress on patients living with physical illnesses, such as gastrointestinal and cardiometabolic disorders, or people facing the challenges of infertility, there is an urgent need for widely-available tools for preventative approaches to mental health.”

Nick Hocart, partner, Brydge Capital, added: “We have tracked the trend of an increase in investment in solutions targeting mental health. Most of them focus on supporting people usually when they are at their lowest point in health. We believe that Harper has the best-placed team to address the gap in the market where the emphasis is on prevention.”