A surge in mental health startups has emerged, driven by necessity and resilience. The country’s mental health technology sector is currently growing rapidly.
This new ecosystem has been mapped for the first time. Earlier this month, Startup Nation Central, in collaboration with the ICAR organization and Vezil, released Israel’s first mental health field landscape map in 2025.
This map shows technologies that help people deal with trauma, strengthen their personal and social resilience, and increase access to mental health care. According to the organizations involved, the goal is to help businesses develop scalable, research-based solutions for trauma rehabilitation.
“From our deepest breakpoints, we have the opportunity to redefine the training, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of our community,” said Dr. Alona Barnea, head of government neurotechnical research for the Science and Technology Unit. “Our unique experience with resilience allows us not only to endure, but to build on it: transforming the challenges into new pathways for recovery and strength.”
Another important vision behind the initiative is to bring greater adjustments to the mental health field.
“There’s a fragmented ecosystem,” explained Gila Tolub, co-founder of ICAR. She said Israeli Health Fund, government services, hospitals, NGOs, philanthropists and high-tech companies are all investing in mental health. But “They realize this is bigger than any of us, so we need to work together in a whole new way, and the only way to move forward is to work together.”
According to the map, 117 active high-tech companies in Israel have now focused on mental health for 27 years now, seven years ago. According to Startup Nation Central, the field began to expand as early as 2018.
Still, last year, investors’ trust and capital grew the biggest. Private funding rose 66% in 2023 to $123 million.
Tolub told the media line there are many new businesses or businesses operating in Israel. Approximately 85% of mental health technology startups are still in the early stages of development, with 65% still a much higher percentage than the general health technology sector, which is in the early stages.
In comparison, only 60% of companies are developing early in the entire Israeli technology ecosystem.
This early stage focus means that most companies are small. The report showed that a majority (65%) had fewer than 10 employees. Another 25% have 11-50 employees, with only 10% growing to over 50.
To help understand the mental health technology landscape, the team divided the sector into four categories: self-care, managed care platform, workflow automation, and mental health research.
Self-care refers to tools that help individuals manage their own mental well-being. These include biofeedback devices that provide structure and coping tools, peer support apps, and AI-guided therapy platforms.
One example is Dugri, a digital platform that provides structured, anonymous peer support. It is widely used by Israel, especially among soldiers and their families, and helps them deal with trauma through guided conversations.
“By placing support directly in the user’s hands, these technologies are accessible, stigma-free and instant relief,” the report says.
Managed Care Platforms connect patients and therapists via digital or hybrid models. These may include TeleHealth Services or AI-powered tools to help you deliver treatments.
In this field, kai.ai stands out. It is an AI-based mental health platform rooted in cognitive behavioral therapy and positive psychology. The company works with the University of Israel to support thousands of reserves. Another company, Graymatters Health, uses brain computer interface technology to help post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) regulate brain activity by targeting biomarkers associated with the amygdala.
Workflow automation tools aim to ease the management burden of clinicians, allowing them to concentrate more on treatment and less on paperwork. This is especially important in Israel, where the mental health system has long been underfunded. According to the Ministry of Health, there is only one public sector psychiatrist in every 11,705 people.
“Automation tools help streamline services, reduce wait times and allow clinicians to focus on treatment rather than administration,” the report explained. “AI-driven automation solutions ensure that individuals in crisis receive timely interventions and make their systems more efficient and effective.”
One of the leading companies in the region is Eleos Health. Its AI platform automatically captures critical moments in a treatment session, generates clinical documentation, streamlines workflows, and helps therapists reduce symptoms faster. Eleos is one of Israel’s most advanced mental health startups. According to Startup Nation Central, it has raised $128 million so far, including $60 million in the Series C round in January 2025.
Mental health research is the final category. The field focuses on machine learning tools that improve early diagnosis, diagnostic accuracy, predict patient responses to treatment, and coordinate care for individuals.
One company in this field is Neurokaire, which uses patient blood cells to create brain models. These laboratory-raised neurons allow you to test your drugs outside the body, providing a faster and more accurate way to treat PTSD, depression and anxiety.
Tolub appeared after the idea of ICAR (a collective action for Israeli resilience) fought when it became clear that trauma care in Israel had been fragmented. Even patients struggling to find help didn’t know where to head.
Beyond that, Israel still lacks national protocols for mental health or trauma healing. And today, nearly 10 million people were affected by some form of trauma, living until October 7th and the ongoing seven-sided war, ICAR believed it needed to accelerate recovery efforts. Tolub said the organization is helping NGOs, universities, philanthropists and other players connect and move things forward.
“We built a scientific advisory committee that includes a variety of experts, such as universities, health funds, and more. We asked if they had $100 million in the place where they would place it. And from October 7th we identified eight areas where we could accelerate healing disproportionately,” Tolub said. “We have identified interventions with high social returns on investment.”
One of these areas is promoting technical initiatives in mental health.
Startup Nation Central “reflected its vision by saying there is a potential for significant expansion into Israel’s mental health ecosystem, particularly in building trauma care and resilience in the broader community.”
The report states: “The Israeli mental health crisis calls for coordinated and immediate action to leverage technological innovation in this sector. Several important steps are needed to grow the sector and leverage existing knowledge and innovation. First, we need to expand our digital treatment options by integrating AI and automation solutions into legislation and national health policy. We detect mental health trends through data analysis to prevent the crisis from escalating, promoting research, development and, ultimately, dissatisfied Israeli expertise in the global community.
Tolub said, “We don’t have any options. We need technology to help all those who need help.”
She said, “The world sees Israel as a Petri dish for mental health. I don’t think Israel has become a leader in pure luck defense technology or cybersecurity. Need is the mother of innovation, and I think mental health technology is the next big thing.”
