The Path, founded by former Calm employees and the creators of the Mental app, closed a $14.3 million seed round led by Prime Movers Lab and added Tony Robbins as a co‑founder to help shape an AI therapy and coaching product.
The Path announced a $14.3 million seed round led by Prime Movers Lab and said Tony Robbins, previously an investor through Prime Movers, has joined the company as a co‑founder to help shape product and branding. The move backs a startup positioning itself to scale AI‑driven mental‑health support, a response the founders say is needed because licensed therapists are in short supply globally. This infusion of capital and high‑profile involvement aims to accelerate user growth and product development.
The startup markets its app as an AI therapy plus coaching service that blends conversational AI with established self‑improvement methods. The product currently offers 11 virtual AI therapists and allows users to set preferences for directness and interaction style. The Path is distributing the app free during an initial growth period and plans to convert to a subscription priced at $40 per month once it scales its user base.
On safety and performance, The Path reports its specially trained model scored 95 on the Vera — MH mental‑health safety benchmark, contrasting that result with a top score of 65 it attributes to consumer chatbots. The company says the model is post‑trained from open‑source bases rather than relying on major commercial large language models; training prioritized interaction patterns it considers better suited to therapy — for example, probing and structuring exchanges rather than engagement‑optimizing reinforcement.
Co‑founder Anson Whitmer, who serves as CEO, and Tyler Sheaffer lead the company’s product effort. Whitmer holds a PhD in psychology and left Calm in 2021; he and other founders include former Calm staff and the creators of the men’s mental‑health app Mental. Whitmer has cited personal tragedy as a motivating factor for building a tool he describes as both safer and more scalable than current consumer chatbots.
The Path frames its product against two practical constraints: a global shortage of licensed therapists and the tendency for consumer chatbots to favor engagement over clinical depth. The startup points to broader demand for online help — OpenAI has previously reported at least 900 weekly ChatGPT users seeking mental‑health related assistance — to underscore the gap it aims to fill.
For builders and evaluators, The Path highlights three concrete design choices: starting from open‑source model bases with post‑training, applying an external safety benchmark (Vera — MH) to measure behavior, and exposing configurable persona options (11 therapist avatars plus preference sliders). The company notes these are its current priorities and that its claims are company‑reported; the results of independent benchmarking and the viability of a $40/month business model will be key signals to watch as The Path expands its user base and product rollout.
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