What's the name of your startup?
United We Care. And what is the problem that United
We Care is solving?
One in four people are dealing with mental health issues,
problems or disorders, and 3.5 trillion is the money that's
lost in these kinds of issues.
So that's that's a large part of the problem that
we're solving.
India is home to about 280 mental health startups.
What gives United We Care an edge.
We are actually one of its kind and we cut
across all four stages of mental health starting from diagnosis,
prevention, care and post care support.
And in the middle of all this is our,
you know, AI virtual coach.
We lovingly call her Stella.
Stella is CBD trained. She can interact in 20-9 different
languages.
She can understand the underlying situation of a person with
95% accuracy. The problem is severe.
She will also connect you with the right clinician.
So we are the ones who's bring
AI with human touch.
How important is the role that generative AI is going
to play when it comes to healthcare and specially mental
Wellness?
The way I look at generative AI,
I think it's the tool for us to get to
billions of people.
You are not going to find a clinician at 2:00
AM in the morning.
You're not going to find find a clinician which is
always 24 by 7 available or who will understand the
social fabric and construct.
And that's where you know AI actually bridges the journey
where you can have a conversation with her.
She understands your problem, your issues.
She will give you real time tools to solve those.
What have been some of the most frequently asked queries
on your platform?
It really depends on region to region.
If I look at for example,
US as a geography, which happens to be one of
our largest geographies,
it is loneliness, It is how is micro communities dealing?
When I say micro communities,
it could be LGBTQ or it could be immigrants that
are actually in in in that country that are dealing
with different kinds of problems and
micro communities are the ones that are facing deepest level
of mental health issues.
And when I come to India again it it kind
of differs,
right. So stress, anxiety are the two leading factors that
we see.
And now that could be relationships we see as trending
very high,
but there are undercurrents of you know even micro communities
in our country which is LGBTQ.
It's brewing smaller scale, but it's growing.
How many users do you currently have on your platform
and how many healthcare professionals are you working with?
So overall we get about a million users and these
are coming from different parts of the world.
So US happens to be one of our largest market
followed by Germany,
France and India. We have over 100 clinicians in India
and over 25 plus clinicians in the US
US is a market we just started about six months
back and we have also already partnered with some of
the largest insurance companies for the first company in India
to bring health insurance in the forefront.
One of the biggest issues that we have seen when
it comes to mental health
is it's not affordable. How are you solving that problem?
There are three ways that actually solving that problem.
So number one is sometimes you don't understand the urgency
of the situation,
right. And then you keep putting it on the side
that,
hey, I'm going to deal with it at the right
time.
That's one thing that we saw through a generative AI,
right. So if Stella, you come and you take a,
you take a test on anxiety and when you know
that your anxiety levels are serious is when you start
to talk about it.
And then we don't see that people straight away go
to a clinician,
right? People will continue to talk to Stella
SO200 sessions on Stella to one conversation with a clinician
is what we see.
And Stella conversations are completely free as long as we
possibly can.
You would want to keep Stella free because the idea
is to make it affordable for millions and billions of
people,
people out there. How has the fundraising journey been for
United?
We Care. So so far we've raised about
$3,000,000. But we are gearing up for a next round
soon.
And when can we hear about the next round,
four months at the top,
how has the business done in FI 23 and what's
your outlook for FI 24?
So if I look at FI 24,
you know the business on books selectively because about is
around $13 million.
We are not going to stop till we reach billions
of people.
What is your take on
influencers coming on Instagram and,
you know, talking about mental health?
There are many, many influences out there that actually preach
about mental health.
They preach mental health, but when you go and seek
out support,
it is all monetary and it gets into very different
shades and you know,
areas. So yeah, I'm sure there are some good ones
and there are some not so good ones.
We listen to many stories,
but when you act is when you know that there
is a problem that you have and that's how specific
influencers or any solution has to be to be able
to bridge that gap.