Earkick makes mental health measurable

Today Earkick launches the MoodInsights engine - its AI technology that allows users to track their mental wellbeing by simply speaking into the app for as little as 10 seconds per day. Earkick’s app provides automated measurements and actionable suggestions based on real data.

“Unlike current approaches that use a single-shot of voice biomarkers only, Earkick’s algorithm innovates by using a multi-shot technology approach that supports text, voice, and even video to generate a rich picture of the user’s mental health” said Herbert Bay, CEO. The team used an extensive test set of millions of voice and video samples from users around the world. MoodInsights achieved a F1 score - a measure of a model’s accuracy on a dataset - of 0.8, which is higher than competitors.

Mental health is a serious issue for individuals and companies alike. In the US alone, stress-related work absences cost employers $500 billion annually. Not surprisingly, there is huge interest in Earkick's app. Important US and European companies are already committed to a pilot. The first pilot will start in a few days. “We cannot disclose the names, but they include companies with 1,500+employees”, explains Herbert Bay.

Earkick with offices in San Francisco and Zurich was co-founded in 2021 by serial entrepreneurs – Herbert Bay (sold kooaba successfully to Qualcomm) and Karin Andrea Stephan. Her thesis explored opportunities at the intersection of deep tech and mental health and has become the basis for MoodInsights.

The app is available for download for iOS from today. The start-up has an aggressive roadmap of features that will ultimately measure, track and enable users to manage their mental health very effectively. In addition Earkick is currently working on clinical trials together with Prof Jasper Smits from university of Texas.

(SK)