Jimini Health combines talk therapy with 24/7 support from an AI assistant.The mental health startup secured $8 million in funding in November.Jimini says it's taking a slow, evidence-based approach to using AI.Technology hasn't done much to improve patient outcomes from talk therapy, according to recent research. Jimini Health is hoping AI can help.Jimini's AI assistant, Sage, elevates talk therapy by conducting in-depth patient intakes and offering 24/7 messaging and personalized activities between sessions. That continuous engagement, the startup says, is the key to helping a patient retrain their brain."The way to improve this is not about that one hour a week of therapy. It's really about all the other hours in a week and helping people as much as possible there," Jimini co-founder and CEO Luis Voloch told Business Insider.Founded in 2023, Jimini landed $8 million in funding in November from investors including Zetta Venture Partners, LionBird, PsyMed, BoxGroup, Arkitekt Ventures, and SCB.The startup has been rolling out its tech since the spring. Voloch said Jimini has intentionally moved slowly to focus on safety and efficacy.It's a response to previous healthcare startup controversies, such as government investigations into startup Cerebral, as well as concern about AI safety. Numerous unregulated chatbots on the market can simulate intimate relationships, prompting some experts to worry that AI companions may actually worsen isolation, according to a New York Times report.Multiple lawsuits against startup Character.AI this year have alleged the startup's chatbots have harmed teenage users. Character.AI told BI earlier this year that it's introduced numerous safety features, and is working on more.Voloch said he told potential investors that Jimini Health wouldn't be the fastest-growing startup, nor the first to bring its product to market. Other startups may make those moves faster, "and one of them is going to end up on the front page of The New York Times with a disaster story that could've been prevented," he said.Jimini's careful, evidence-based approach draws on the expertise of its founding team. Before starting Jimini, Voloch cofounded cancer biotech Immunai, where he served as chief technology officer.The team also includes president Mark Jacobstein, the former chief business officer at Immunai, and chief product officer Sahil Sud, a member of health data startup Ribbon Health's founding team. David Feinberg, former CEO of health data giant Cerner, is one of Jimini's advisors.Voloch said Jimini's goal isn't to replace human therapists with AI but to integrate AI into their workflows. Therapists are interested in the startup's technology because they're so busy due to a shortage of experts in the field, according to Voloch. "They know there's so much more demand than they could ever handle," he said.Jimini currently treats patients with low to moderate mental healthcare needs, but hopes to expand its capabilities to take on patients with serious mental illness in the future, Voloch said.The startup has focused so far on selling directly to patients but plans to begin contracting with businesses next year. Voloch said Jimini will use its fresh funding to that end, as well as to continue improving its AI and building new features."We're going to be spending a lot more on fine-tuning and model training and development in 2025," Voloch said. "We feel like we've created an amazing patient journey that just scratches the surface of what we can do, and next year, we want to leave no stone unturned."Here's an exclusive look at the pitch deck AI mental health startup Jimini Health used to raise its $8 million pre-seed round.