Cambridge Mind Technologies crowdfunds Cami for progress

Cambridge Mind Technologies has launched a crowdfunder to accelerate deployment of Cami, its AI companion for early-stage adolescent mental health support in schools and clinics.

Built on research from the University of Cambridge, Cami is designed to provide psychological first aid at the earliest signs of distress before clinical intervention is needed.

Prof Robert Batt, a Cambridge researcher and clinician with more than 30,000 hours of experience working with adolescents, founded the company in 2018. In 2023 he was joined by fellow directors Prof Sabine Bahn, a director of the Bahn Laboratory at The University of Cambridge, entrepreneur Jeremy Davies and Cambridge Future Tech.

The campaign invites individuals to invest from as little as £20, with funds helping expand Cami’s reach in schools and clinics across the UK. The Cami device has been built to serve the ‘second dozen years’ (12–24), now widely considered to cover adolescence.

Prof Batt leads The Recovery Centre, a London-based group of mental health practitioners that give support with ADHD and autism, eating disorders, therapy for anxiety, depression, OCD and trauma. His view is that intervention – or at least support – needs to be introduced earlier, before a formal diagnosis is made, when a young person is having a difficult time rather than being unwell per se.

“What is needed at this point is psychological first aid rather than psychotherapy,” Prof Batt told the Cambridge Independent. “Other companies try to replicate psychotherapy models, and this is a significant way in which we are doing things differently. Once a set of negative behaviours has become chronic, psychotherapy is indicated. However, our focus is on pre-clinical support for young people, often years before psychotherapy is required.

“If there is no intervention when a young person is not unwell but simply having a difficult time, then these negative emotions can lead to compensatory behaviours.” He adds: “Over the last two years, our psychology team has built and iterated multiple psychological models to make Cami safer than LLMs.”

Cambridge Mind Technologies aims to make early emotional support “safe, empathetic and scalable”. But how far can a computer in its quest to be empathetic without actually having empathy?

“You’re absolutely right that computers don’t feel empathy,” replies Prof Batt. “What Cami does is replicate the language and tone of empathy – not to replace human connection, but to keep young people safe until that connection can be made.”

Cami’s ability to respond appropriately is based “partly using our own dataset of 133,000 messages between clients and mentors providing psychological first aid. “The system continuously analyses messages for indicators of distress, hopelessness or suicidal ideation, and if risk is detected, the designated safeguarding lead at the school or clinic is immediately alerted through a secure reporting process,” Prof Batt notes. “That human oversight is integral – no conversation ever exists in a vacuum.

“So while the interaction feels conversational, Cami’s real value lies in its ability to spot risk early, flag it in real time, and trigger a human response. It’s precisely this partnership between psychology, AI, and safeguarding that makes the model both scalable and safe.”

While Cami was conceived to meet “a very obvious gap in mental health provision”, turning the idea into a business has been an odyssey which has secured validity as the wellbeing of young people is increasingly a source of concern. In 2023 an NHS England report concluded that around one in five children and young people aged eight to 25 years had a probable mental disorder. This number has been rising since 2017, most notably in the 17-19 age group.

Prof Sabine Bahn is a practising psychiatrist, chair in Neurotechnology and director of the Cambridge Centre for Neuropsychiatric Research. Dr Batt pays tribute to Prof Bahn, a practising psychiatrist, chair in neurotechnology and director of the Cambridge Centre for Neuropsychiatric Research.

“Sabine was my first hire, as her experience allowed me to turn a concept into reality,” says Robert. “The team is fairly small to preserve runway, but currently stands at seven in total. Crowdfunding will allow for a further three roles.”

The product is sold B2B. Guidelines set by OFSTED and NICE for risk reporting are adhered to. If Cami is used in a school or mental health clinic, the designated safeguarding lead is immediately alerted if risk is detected.

View the Republic Europe crowdfunding campaign.

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