Earkick, a company focused on building the world’s first data-driven health tracker via multimodal sentiment analysis of physiological biomarkers, has announced that it raised $1M pre-seed financing.
The funding round was led by LDV Capital and included participation from investors that are focused on building healthcare-related businesses.
Deep Tech Artificial Intelligence
The real-time tracker for analyzing mental health relies on the company’s deep tech artificial intelligence (AI) platform that analyzes health markers, vital signs, and voice. It is also capable of conducting sentiment analysis to detect early signs of anxiety, depression and other mental health problems.
Dr. Herbert Bay and Karin Andrea Stephan are two serial entrepreneurs who founded Earckick.
“There are 30,000+ mental health apps out there, but no solution to objectively measure outcomes. It’s like having 30,000 diets and lacking a scale to assess daily progress,” Dr. Herbert Bay says. “This financing round will be used to hire talent, refine algorithms that analyze visual data and further develop Earkick’s patent-pending technology. Partnering with LDV Capital allows us to benefit from their expertise in deep tech and a well-developed worldwide network of specialists leveraging AI, machine learning, and computer vision across all industries. This New York-based venture capital firm will also support us in expanding into the US market.”
As COVID-19 continues to impact the healthcare sectors of countries around the globe, a tool like Earkick’s smart tracker can assist both individuals and healthcare providers.
Mobile App Platform
Individuals using the system can check in with their app by leaving voice recordings indicating how they’re feeling. The mobile app listens to the voices and extracts information about mental and physical health. It then can analyze the modalities of a voice rather than recording or analyzing the exact words.
This data is analyzed on the phone at the edge, which helps it achieve a high level of privacy. Based on each person’s unique voice, the tracker can identify deviations from a healthy baseline, which helps it discover them before symptoms arise.
Besides this, Earkick can also analyze multiple vital signs like heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), the quality of sleep, stress level, and more signs that are available thanks to smartwatches. With biosignals that are captured by smartphones and wearables, Earkick can combine them with visual and environmental data to create a full picture of an individual’s mental health status. The on-screen guide provides various breathing techniques and affirmations to help address symptoms of anxiety, panic attacks, and more.
“Measuring mental health is the missing puzzle piece for scalable mental health care and prevention. We co-founded Earkick to fundamentally change the way people tackle their mental health conditions,” says Stephan
Earkick is looking to collaborate with healthcare professionals and universities to research how data-driven technology solutions can help people avoid mental illness.
Evan Nisselson is General Partner at LDV Capital.
“Mental health impacts millions of people and our research proved that tracking mental health to date has been an art, not a science,” Nisselson says. “We are excited to partner with the brilliant Earkick team in helping proactively prevent mental health problems with the first real-time data-driven mental health tracker. We had regular calls months before Herbert & Karin Andrea incorporated their new company. We were thrilled to partner with them as their first investor.”
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