Psychiatry meets AI
Youper was founded in San Francisco in 2016 by Dr. Jose Hamilton Vargas, a psychiatrist who treated more than 3,000 patients over a decade and saw the same barriers repeatedly: fear, stigma, and cost kept people from getting help until crises hit. Alongside co-founders Diego Dotta and Thiago Marafon, he built Youper — an 'emotional health assistant' chatbot that makes evidence-based techniques available in minutes on a phone.
CBT in your pocket
Youper guides users through brief, structured conversations based on cognitive behavioral therapy, helping them track mood, reflect on emotions, reframe negative thinking, and journal their progress. The app emphasizes safety: it is explicitly not a replacement for professional care, is designed for adults 18+, and includes crisis resources and safeguards around suicide and self-harm. Youper's effectiveness has been examined in peer-reviewed research, including a Stanford-affiliated study finding reduced anxiety and depression symptoms among users.
Funding
Youper raised a $3M seed from Goodwater Capital in 2019 and roughly $5M in total. It remains one of the longest-running consumer AI mental health products, having served millions of users through the rise of the AI therapy category it helped pioneer.