Wysa, an artificial intelligence (AI) digital platform for mental health originally founded in India, announced Thursday it has secured $20 million in financing.

The round is led by HealthQuad, who along with British International Investment (BII), the United Kingdom’s development finance institution, joins earlier investors W Health Ventures, Kae Capital, Google Assistant Investments, and pi Ventures amongst others, Wysa said in a statement.

Wysa said it will use this capital to further expand into the United States, United Kingdom, India and other global markets across enterprises, payors, providers as well as improve wider usability through multi-lingual support and easier access via WhatsApp.

“Wysa has not only been extremely successful as a consumer well-being platform but has also developed into a clinically validated, powerful tool to proactively manage mental health and well-being. Wysa meets people where they are, whether that means a little help with occasional workplace stress, right up to coping with debilitating pain, depression and anxiety. With this funding, we look forward to scaling-up further and helping millions of more people,” said Ramakant Vempati, Co-Founder of Wysa.

Wysa is a global leader in AI-driven mental health support, available both to individuals, through employer benefits programs and healthcare services. It supports individuals with the help of an “emotionally intelligent” conversational agent which guides users through evidence-based cognitive-behavioral techniques (CBT), meditation, breathing and mindfulness exercises, as well as micro-actions to help build mental resilience skills.

For employers, Wysa offers a workplace solution that caters to the full spectrum of behavioral health needs. This solution embeds into existing company benefits, such as Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) or external health care provider networks, and can be customized by geography or cohort.

Currently, Wysa has facilitated over 400 million conversations with 4.5 million users in 65 countries. Its customers include Accenture Global, Aetna International, NHS, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and the Ministry of Health in Singapore.

“We are thrilled to be part of the Wysa team. Wysa is developed in India and is marketed globally. The needs for Wysa are present all across, from high income to low-income countries. Mental health triaging of patients using AI which is fast, effective and non stigmatising for patients living in unaccepting societies answers a huge need in India, the rest of low income Asia, Africa as well as the wealthiest countries of the world,” said Charles Antoine-Janssen, Chief Investment Officer of HealthQuad.

According to the statement, Wysa has achieved FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for its AI-based digital mental health conversational agent for adults with a diagnosis of chronic musculoskeletal pain and associated depression and anxiety. Additionally, clinical trials have validated Wysa’s efficacy and published peer-reviewed results show that therapeutic emotional bonds formed by Wysa are equivalent to human therapist relationships.

“Wysa provides help across the care continuum – from the first point of access to digital therapeutics and companion alongside a clinician, to ongoing monitoring and routine management thereby democratizing access to mental health. FDA Breakthrough Device Designation status, user privacy further validated by Mozilla and real-time AI-CBT support makes Wysa one of the few clinically validated, privacy focused and personalized solutions built for global scale” added Ajay Mahipal, Director, HealthQuad.

HealthQuad is India’s leading digital health-focused venture capital fund, with assets under management of $200 million across two funds. Its focus is to nurture innovative models which radically improve healthcare access and affordability by leveraging technology.

“Good mental health is a crucial pillar for sound physical health which in turn promotes social and economic development. Through our investment in Wysa, BII is taking a holistic approach to supporting long-term productive economic prosperity by backing an innovative tech-enabled company that is increasing access to mental health services for low-income and rural individuals,

“We are excited to continue working with Wysa’s team to grow their offering and help improve health outcomes and quality of life for people,” said Srini Nagarajan, Managing Director and Head of Asia at BII.

BII is the new name for the United Kingdom’s development finance institution and was formerly known as CDC Group. It invests between £1.5 and £2 billion ($1.77 billion to $2.37 billion) every year to support the United Kingdom Government’s clean green initiative and to create productive, sustainable and inclusive economies in our markets.

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