clare&me receives 3.7 million euros in financing

Berlin-based AI startup clare&me receives 3.7 million euros for the further development of its mental health AI.

Berlin, August 8, 2024 - Berlin-based AI HealthTech startup clare&me today announced a €3.7 million funding round. The funding round is led by YZR Capital from Munich, with support from new investors such as Kodori Ventures and Material Ventures as well as existing investors and business angels, including Antler.

Development of Clare

The funding will accelerate the development of 'Clare', an AI to support mental health. In addition to the investment, clare&me will receive funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB) and the European Union to develop the first CLLM (Clinical Large Language Model).

With this funding, we continue to focus on developing clinical AI that is based on the latest research and ethical foundations and has a lasting psychological impact.

Emilia Theye, CEO and co-founder of clare&me

Background and goals

clare&me was founded in June 2021 by Celina Messner and Emilia Theye to create a low-threshold offering in the therapeutic self-help market. The founders were already working on conversational AI and the interaction between users and AI in the field of mental health 1.5 years before the ChatGPT hype. This resulted in the mental health AI Clare, which offers therapeutic support via voice-based conversations on smartphones. Clare addresses anxiety, stress and panic and thus solves the problem of high entry barriers, long waiting times and stigmatization.

It can work! It's great fun to see how the team transforms their thoughts into powerful insights, tackles the issue with a medical approach and acts as role models for many.

Markus Feuerecker, Founding Partner at YZR Capital

Studies and research

clare&me is pioneering digital innovation for clinical approaches to mental health. The effectiveness of the model is confirmed by study results in collaboration with Charité Berlin. Patients who regularly interacted with Clare over an 8-week period showed significant improvements in stress, anxiety, depression and loneliness. The results provide initial indications of the development of a therapeutic relationship.

Emilia and Celina wowed us as a founding team when we first invested and continue to do so today. They are developing world-class AI technology to tackle a major health and social challenge that is close to their hearts.

Christoph Klink, Partner at Antler

Future developments

The capital will be invested in the further development of the technology, in particular the training of an empathic CLLM and the development of a second product to automate clinical history taking. This should increase collaboration with clinics and strengthen end-user confidence.