AI-enabled voice technology platform Sonde Health announced it is partnering with Saaya Health, a virtual mental health and well-being platform, to extend its combined offerings to large blue-collar workforces.
Sonde Health’s platform uses its patented voice technology that analyzes short voice samples to detect various health conditions from biomarkers in a person’s voice, including respiratory fitness, depression and anxiety.
Saaya Health offers an employee well-being platform where users can access one-on-one counseling sessions with a psychologist, workshops on well-being and training, AI-enabled nutritional coaching, a specialized program for blue-collar workers and a 24/7 hotline to access support. The company also offers surveys and assessments for HR to understand their workers better.
The partnership will integrate Sonde’s vocal biomarker technology platform into Saaya’s mental health platform.
The companies said in a statement that the integrated platform has been piloted at one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, with expectations that clients in the energy, manufacturing and logistics industries will roll out the offering later this year.
“Frontline workers are the high-performance backbone of many industries, yet they often lack access to proactive health tracking tools,” David Liu, CEO of Sonde Health, said in a statement.
“By combining our voice-based health insights with Saaya’s mental health support services, we provide large enterprises with the ability to find workers in need of support before they are unwell, so the entire workforce remains healthy and productive.”
THE LARGER TREND
In 2022, Sonde Health secured $19.25 million in a Series B funding, bringing its total raise to $35.25 million. A month before the raise, the company received a $2 million strategic investment from South Korean telecommunications giant KT Corporation.
Sonde Health licensed its voice technology from MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory and, in 2018, received exclusive licensing agreements for the patent.
Other companies that offer vocal biomarker analysis include Kintsugi and Canary Speech. Kintsugi’s platform analyzes one’s voice to help identify conditions like anxiety and depression. Canary Speech last year was awarded a patent for the development of its paired neural networks for speech analysis aimed at advancing the field of voice biomarker technology.
