Kintsugi earns Frost & Sullivan’s Best Practices Technology Innovation Leadership Award

 Kintsugi, a startup developing voice biomarker technology to detect signs of depression and anxiety from short clips of speech, has earned the 2022 Frost & Sullivan Technology Innovation Leadership Award: North American Vocal Biomarkers for Mental Health Industry - Excellence in Best Practices. The award recognizes companies at the forefront of innovation and growth in their respective industries.

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Kintsugi’s machine learning algorithms analyze short clips of free-form speech for vocal signs of clinical depression and anxiety. Their API platform Kintsugi Voice makes real-time assessments of patients’ mental health, supporting primary care practitioners in deciding who needs further care.

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The tool integrates seamlessly with clinical call centers, telehealth platforms, and remote patient monitoring apps, augmenting a practitioner’s ability to objectively and accurately evaluate patients’ behavioral health. Kintsugi Voice is language-agnostic, since it focuses on universal features of speech, instead of the actual words being said. In addition, the machine learning model is developed using the largest dataset in the world for voice biomarkers and mental health, collected via Kintsugi’s award-winning consumer wellness app in over 250 international cities and in multiple languages. 

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The Berkeley startup was selected for its groundbreaking technology, which aims to bridge important access gaps in mental health care. According to Frost & Sullivan’s analysis, Kintsugi Voice is the first and only voice biomarker technology that is developing a real-time mental health assessment using as little as 20 seconds of audio. The company continues to improve and further validate its technology by deploying it across different settings and patient circumstances, via clinical partnerships with a number of hospitals and health organizations. 

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“It is an honor to receive Frost & Sullivan’s 2022 Best Practices Technology Innovation Leadership Award,” said Grace Chang, Founder and CEO of Kintsugi. “Traditionally, primary care mental health screening has been based on subjective analysis and self-reporting. At Kintsugi, we aim to empower practitioners with an objective and quantifiable mental health screening tool. Frost & Sullivan’s analysis and due diligence in voice biomarkers for mental health is a significant milestone for innovation in healthcare.”

Kintsugi recently announced a $20M Series A, bringing the company’s total capital raised to $28M since its inception in 2019. The funding round was led by New York-based global venture capital and private equity firm Insight Partners, and will help Kintsugi scale access to mental healthcare for more people in need. In addition, the company was named a 2022 Gartner Cool Vendor in AI Governance and Responsible AI, and was one of the startups listed in Forbes’ 2022 AI 50 in North America. 

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About Kintsugi:

Kintsugi is developing novel voice biomarker software to detect signs of clinical depression and anxiety from short clips of free-form speech, closing mental health care gaps across risk-bearing health systems, saving time and lives. Based in Berkeley, California, Kintsugi is on a mission to provide equitable access to mental healthcare for all.

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About Frost & Sullivan:

For six decades, Frost & Sullivan has been world-renowned for its role in helping investors, corporate leaders, and governments navigate economic changes and identify disruptive technologies, Mega Trends, new business models, and companies to action, resulting in a continuous flow of growth opportunities to drive future success.

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