Kintsugi’s Next Chapter: A $30M Gift to the Global Mental Health Community

To our partners, researchers, and the mental health community,

Kintsugi was founded on a singular, audacious premise: that the biology of the human voice holds the key to making mental healthcare objective, accessible, and universal. We believed that by listening to the "how" of speech, not just the "what", we could bridge the gap between silent suffering and clinical support.

Over the years, we have poured $30M of capital and tens of thousands of hours of collective "blood, sweat, and tears" into this mission. We navigated the rigorous path of FDA De Novo Clearance and pushed the boundaries of what voice biomarker AI could achieve in detecting depression and anxiety.

Today, I am sharing the difficult news that Kintsugi is shutting down its commercial operations. However, the mission itself is not over.

In the spirit of the Japanese art of Kintsugi–where breaks are repaired with gold to create something stronger–we have decided to open-source our core work. We are choosing the integrity of the science over the limitations of a distressed market. We refuse to let these breakthroughs sit on a shelf or disappear into a closed acquisition.

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The Legacy We Are Releasing

By moving our research and technology into the public domain, we hope to empower the next generation of healers and innovators. We are releasing:

• Our Voice Biomarker Models: The foundational AI architectures built to identify clinical markers of distress.
• Scientific Methodologies: The frameworks developed during our regulatory journey to ensure objectivity and reduce bias.
• Formative Research: Years of insights into the intersection of acoustics and mental health.

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Why This Matters Now

Timing and luck are often the silent partners in business, and while they did not align for us commercially, the global need for objective mental health measurement has never been more urgent. By open-sourcing Kintsugi, we are removing the paywalls and proprietary barriers, allowing a global community of scientists to unlock the potential of voice-based identification, triage, and monitoring for everyone, everywhere.

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A Final Note of Gratitude

To our team: your perseverance was the heartbeat of this company. To our supporters: you gave us the runway to prove that this science is real.

It is with a heavy heart that we close this chapter, but with profound optimism that our scientific achievements will now live on to serve those in their darkest hours. We may not have reached the finish line ourselves, but we are handing the torch to you.

The gold is in the work. Please use it well.

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With gratitude and hope,
Grace Chang
Founder/CEO, Kintsugi

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Core Contributors (Current Team)

This open-source release reflects the work of the following contributors, who directly shaped the research, models, clinical strategy, execution, and product systems being shared:

- Grace Chang, Founder/CEO‍

- Albert Ihochi, Head of Strategy & Business Development

- Noah Stein, PhD, Sr. Staff ML Engineer  

- Colin Vaz, PhD, Sr. ML Engineer  

- Oleksii Abramenko, Sr. ML Engineer  

- Peeyush Aggarwal, Sr. Director of Engineering  

- Prashant Panigrahi, Sr. Director of Products  

- Alice Kim, Sr. Product Designer  

- Prentice Tom, MD, Chief Medical Officer  

- Haritha Haridas, PhD, Director of Clinical Operations and Strategy

- Victoria Graham, Sr. Clinical Operations Associate

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Foundational & Former Contributors

We also recognize the following former team members whose foundational work meaningfully shaped the research, systems, and direction of what is being released:

- Rima Seiilova-Olson, Fmr. Founder/Chief Scientist  

- Wei Gu, PhD, Fmr. Distinguished Scientist  

- Vedaad Shakib, Fmr. ML Engineer  

- Harrison Costantino, Fmr. ML Research Manager  

- Mario Ishac, Fmr. Software Architect  

- Lexi Mazur, Fmr. Clinical Product Manager  

- Deepak Ghosh, Fmr. Head of Product  

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All open-source documentation and releases on Hugging Face: here

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