Tech
The Path, founded by Tony Robbins and Calm alums, hopes to offer safer AI therapy
When the founders of a mental health app for men called Mental saw that one feature — AI interactive audio — was resonating wildly with their users, they knew they were onto something.
And so the idea for a new, and hopefully safer, kind of AI therapy app was born, which they called The Path, co-founder and CEO Anson Whitmer tells TechCrunch.
Then famed author and motivational speaker Tony Robbins grew so enamored with this startup; he scooched in as a co-founder.
The Path has now raised $14.3 million in seed funding led by Prime Movers Lab (where Robbins is a partner), with participation from speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno, boxer Deontay Wilder, and Designer Fund.
After Prime Movers invested, Robbins began chatting with Whitmer and co-founder Tyler Sheaffer on small stuff like branding, but as his enthusiasm and ideas for the app grew, they offered to bring him in as a co-founder. The author has since helped shape The Path into a therapy-plus-coaching app that taps into Robbins’ popular self-improvements methods.
Whitmer, formerly an early employee at meditation app Calm alongside Sheaffer, says his pursuit of mental health tech was born out of tragic experiences: When he was 19, a beloved uncle committed suicide.
That inspired Whitmer to get a PhD in psychology, and he planned to go into research after graduation. But while he was in college, a cousin left a voicemail. “I didn’t realize until it was too late. It was also a call for help, and he killed himself,” Whitmer recalls.
That spurred a change of course towards work that could bring science’s findings to the masses. Working at Calm was a natural first step, as the research on how meditation improves mental health is solid. Still, after working at Calm until 2021, Whitmer felt he could do more.
“Even though we did have a big impact, it’s not really a big enough impact,” he said. “The issue is, people’s problems are just too idiosyncratic. They’re too personal. They’re unique.”
Plus, everyone will never have access to individual therapy or coaching. There just aren’t enough therapists in the world for that.
Whitmer sees LLMs and AI as the bridge spanning that gap. “What’s exciting and game-changing is that, for the first time in my career, I’ve seen that there’s actually this possibility for every single person to have the personalized sort of access and care that they need to really get the help,” he said.
In fact, such a thing is already starting to happen. OpenAI has said that at least 900 million people use ChatGPT for mental health-related queries every week.
However, the problem with using consumer chatbots for mental health is that they are “optimized for engagement,” Whitmer says, and that is the opposite of what therapy and coaching should do.
Consumer chatbots try to solve problems quickly for users, and also engage in “reinforcement” of ideas, to keep users coming back for more. “But therapy/coaching doesn’t work that way. You’re trying to understand the problem deeply,” he said. The idea is to dig out assumptions and then help the person discover their own solutions.
Whitmer says The Path’s AI is trained “to set up structure, so that later on, you can get to a place where there is resolution,” but from a place of understanding.
To that end, Whitmer says the startup’s specially trained AI model has scored a 95 on the mental health safety AI benchmark, Vera-MH. This compares to a top score of 65 for the consumer bots.
“It’s meant to challenge you. It’s not just meant to agree with you,” he says. In fact, he says the app’s model is post-trained from open source models, so it doesn’t use the major consumer LLMs at all, meaning it is not simply a wrapper over them.
The Path, which lets users choose from 11 virtual AI therapists and customize their preferences for directness and other details, is currently free as it gains users. Eventually, the startup plans to charge $40 a month.
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Tech
Imperagen raises £5 million to use quantum physics, AI on enzyme engineering
Biotech company Imperagen announced on Thursday a £5 million ($6.7 million) seed round led by PXN Ventures, with participation from IQ Capital and Northern Gritstone. The company was founded in 2021 by Manchester Institute of Biotechnology scientists Dr. Andrew Currin, Dr. Tim Eyes, and Dr. Andy Almond and spun out of the university.
The startup seeks to improve enzyme engineering by making it faster, more efficient, and less costly than the slower, more physical, trial-and-error-focused process used now.
Imperagen is using three core technologies as it seeks to redefine enzyme engineering. Specifically, it uses a quantum physics-based simulation instead of trial-and-error enzyme mutations in a lab. Imperagen predicts the behavior of enzyme variants on a computer using advanced quantum physics modeling that can explore millions of mutations, the company said. Then it translates this information into its custom AI models, trained on the enzyme problems Imperagen seeks to explore. Finally, to retain its AI models, Imperagen uses robots and automation to generate experimental data, which is fed back to the AI model, in a process called closed-loop simulation.
Enzymes are incredibly important across many industries, especially in pharmaceuticals, as they are essential to drug development. Startups like Imperagen are hoping to speed up enzyme engineering because it can have a domino effect, making, for example, drug discovery faster and more efficient. Enzymes are also used in sectors like food, biofuels, and agriculture. Experts in sustainability are also looking to enzymes — and the AI technologies surrounding them — to make industrial production and manufacturing more sustainable.
Others in this space include Biomatter, Cradle Bio, and Absci.
On Thursday, Imperagen also announced that Guy Levy-Yurista will assume the role of CEO. Speaking to TechCrunch, he said that right now, the process of enzyme engineering is falling short, where even many new AI-powered technologies can pass trial and error but fail when put into practice on an industrial scale.
Imperagen hopes its tech will make enzyme development “faster, more reliable, and more commercially accessible, helping companies bring better bio-based products to market without the long timelines and uncertainty that have traditionally held the field back,” he told TechCrunch.
Levy-Yurista has a background in AI, life sciences, and enterprise technology. Though the founders will remain at the company, Levy-Yurista was brought in to help build out its new technologies, including a vertical AI infrastructure for biocatalysis (a process that accelerates chemical reactions using natural catalysts like enzymes), while scaling the startup’s AI strategy, commercial models, and industrial partnerships.
The company has raised £8.5 million ($11.42 million) in funding to date and the fresh capital will be used to hire more AI specialists, put toward research and development, expand its experimental lab capabilities, and build a go-to-market function within the next two years.
“Ultimately, Imperagen hopes wider use of engineered enzymes will help industries reliably produce products that are cleaner, safer and better for people and the planet, while also making commercial sense for the companies that adopt them,” Levy-Yurista said.
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Tech
General Catalyst just led a $63M bet on India’s travel payments market
Scapia, an Indian startup that combines travel booking with co-branded credit cards and mobile payments, has raised $63 million in a funding round led by General Catalyst, with existing investors Peak XV Partners and Z47 also participating. The deal comes despite a broader slowdown in fintech dealmaking.
The all-equity round assigns the startup a post-money valuation of more than $500 million, according to a source familiar with the matter, more than doubling its valuation from around $200 million in April 2025. The four-year-old outfit has raised $126 million to date from investors.
That General Catalyst, one of the most prominent U.S. venture firms, is leading the round suggests that India’s travel-focused fintech market is drawing serious attention well beyond its home region.
The funding also comes as investors globally grow more selective in fintech bets after years of aggressive funding. In India, fintech funding remained largely flat in Q1 2026, while the number of deals fell by more than half from a year earlier as investors concentrated capital into fewer, larger deals, per a recent report by Tracxn. By contrast, the U.S. saw fintech funding grow sharply, driven by large rounds for a handful of companies in areas including AI and crypto infrastructure.
Investors are betting Scapia can benefit from growing demand among younger Indians for apps that combine payments and travel bookings. Founded in 2022 by former Flipkart executive Anil Goteti, the startup’s app combines co-branded credit cards, UPI-based payments, travel bookings, and commerce in one place. UPI — India’s government-backed real-time payments network and one of the most widely used digital payment systems in the world — is central to how younger Indians move money today.
Over the past year, Scapia said flight bookings on its platform grew nearly six times, while hotel bookings increased about eightfold, with smaller Indian cities driving a growing share of demand. Customer growth also rose sevenfold during the same period, the startup said, without disclosing absolute figures.
Scapia has seen strong adoption among younger travelers who increasingly want flexible travel rewards and integrated payment options instead of traditional credit card perks, Goteti said in an interview. He added that one-third of users now prefer airport dining and shopping rewards over lounge access.
“Lounges are getting quite crowded,” Goteti told TechCrunch. “People actually are looking for an experience outside the lounge.”
Scapia also offers a dual-network co-branded credit card using both Visa and RuPay — a government-backed Indian payment network — allowing users to access card payments and UPI-linked credit through a single statement, credit line, and repayment flow. Moreover, the startup partners with Federal Bank and BOBCARD to offer co-branded cards and plans to add another banking partner in the coming months, Goteti said.
The Bengaluru-based startup operates in a growing market for travel-focused financial products in India, competing with companies like Niyo — another Indian startup that combines banking and travel features — and travel platform Ixigo, while global fintech firms including Revolut are also eyeing the country.
Scapia, which has about 250 employees, said the fresh funding will go toward expanding its product offerings and hiring more AI-focused engineering and product talent as competition intensifies in India’s consumer fintech market.
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Tech
Truecaller gets into the eSIM business to diversify its revenue streams
Caller ID company Truecaller launched eSIM services for travelers. The launch comes as the company aims to bolster its balance sheet and diversify business amid dipping ad revenues.
The company said its plans will range from 1 GB over 7 days to 20 GB over 30 days. Initially, the launch will make the eSIM product available in 29 countries.
The list includes Italy, Sweden, Spain, France, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Romania, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, Austria, Finland, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland, Norway, Chile, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Africa, Egypt, and Nigeria.
Notably, the company’s biggest market, India, is missing from the list. This is likely due to the country’s strict telecom regulations. Previously, the country blocked Airalo and Holafly over concerns around fraudulent use.
Truecaller said it is working with global cellular connectivity provider Telna and telecom software provider Telness Tech to operate the eSIM platform.
Where there are other eSIM providers like Airalo, Holafly, Roamless, and NordVPN’s Saily, Truecaller thinks that its existing user base of over 500 million will prove beneficial for acquiring new users.
“The starting point is different from other players in the category. They have had to build their audiences from zero. We are offering travel eSIM inside our app that over 500 million people already use and trust every month,” Truecaller chief operating officer Fredrik Kjell told TechCrunch over email.
“These are established relationships, with a large number of people having used Truecaller for many years. That changes distribution and pricing,” said Kjell.
Kjell also said that this is a strategic move for Truecaller that makes the app more usable for users. This comes at a critical time for the company. Last week, the company slashed 70 jobs across many teams. Plus, it posted disappointing Q1 2026 numbers. Truecaller’s net sales dropped 27% to 362 million SEK ($39.34 million), and ad revenues declined by 44%.
The company is leaning into increasing subscription revenues with features like AI Assistant and Family Protection. During times when ad revenue is shaky, additional services like eSIM could provide newer money-making avenues.
As TechCrunch reported last year, eSIM adoption is on the rise thanks to travel and device compatibility. Investors are also interested in putting money into eSIM startups. Within the last 12 months, startups like Airalo, Roamless, Kolet, eSIMo, and Truley raised millions of dollars.
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