Elin.ai, A Czech Mental Health Startup for Gen Z, Secures €600k in Pre-Seed Funding

Elin.ai, a Czech well-being startup dedicated to creating a mental health app specifically for the Gen Z community, has successfully secured €600,000 in funding from Presto Ventures, BD Partners, and angel investors.

Elin.ai enhances the digital health of Gen Z by mitigating the adverse effects of online communication and content consumption on their mental well-being. Currently, around 500 users are testing the beta version of the Elin.ai app.

About Elin.ai

• Founded in 2023 by Jan Romportl, Petr Stanislav, and Jiri Horacek, Elin.ai is a mobile app that safeguards users’ online experiences. It tracks the user’s online interactions and analyzes the content they consume or create. With a long-term memory, Elin.ai progressively learns about the user’s environment and refines their personality model.
• Elin.ai utilizes AI, specifically Large Language Models, to offer accurate and personalized psychological responses to screenshots shared by Gen Z users. Through a chat interface, the app aids users in understanding and coping with the content by providing helpful context, advice, or interventions to support their mental well-being.

A McKinsey study reveals that 20 percent of teenagers in the EU experience depression or chronic anxiety as a result of social media use. Concurrently, there is a severe global shortage of psychiatric and psychotherapeutic care for children and adolescents. This issue is highlighted by numerous studies, including recent comprehensive research by Prof. Jonathan Haidt.

CEO and co-founder Jan Romportl, PhD stated: “Thanks to the support of our core Gen Z community, we’ve successfully finished the trials for the Elin.ai web app. Around 500 users are currently using the app. During this pre-seed phase, our goal is to fully launch the native mobile app and reach at least 5,000 active users. The second part of our pre-seed funding will be dedicated to researching international markets.”

Investment details

• The current investment round is still open and has already received a substantial capital infusion of €500,000 from Presto Ventures, a Prague-based venture capital firm investing throughout the broader CEE region, and BD Partners, a comprehensive partner for new businesses in the US.
• An additional €100,000 has been contributed by several undisclosed angel investors.

Elin.ai extends well beyond standard anti-anxiety techniques like breathing exercises or meditation. It addresses users’ specific issues in real-time, safeguarding teens and young adults from falling into toxic thought and emotional patterns triggered by harmful, manipulative, or extreme content and deliberately distorted information. Additionally, Elin.ai has the potential to significantly influence broader societal issues by decreasing the reliance on compensatory behaviors such as extremism, conspiracy theories, and rigid thinking.