Sychedelic Bags $3.5 Mn To Build AI-Powered Mental Wellness Headphones

Wearable startup Sychedelic has raised $3.5 Mn (about ₹31.5 Cr) in its seed round from investors like Cultadvisors LLP, TurboStart, Ideabaaz and Praveek Ventures, along with participation from angel investors. 

The Delhi NCR-based startup said it plans to utilise the fresh capital towards marketing, scaling manufacturing, expanding research capabilities and supporting its upcoming global Kickstarter launch slated for June 2026. 

Founded in 2020 by husband-wife duo Ria Rustagi and Bhavya Madan, the startup initially operated as Neuphony, building EEG-based neurofeedback headbands focused on tracking brain activity and mental wellness indicators.

The startup later pivoted to launch Sychedelic to develop headphones that can reduce stress, improve focus and support sleep through real-time biofeedback and neuromodulation technologies.

These headphones combine photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors–a non-invasive optical sensing technology used to measure changes in blood flow, adaptive audio and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) technology to monitor users’ stress and cognitive state in real time and intervene accordingly. 

The startup currently operates between India and the US, with a Delaware-based entity, a science advisor based in New York, and freelance marketing professionals supporting its global operations. 

The startup claims that more than 100 early users have been using its product over the last six months. Inputs from the early users have helped Sychedelic refine their hardware and adaptive algorithms. 

The startup has received CDSCO (Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation) approval and filed global patent applications for its technology, which it claims is among the first closed-loop neuromodulation wearable systems that adapts stimulation in real time based on live biometric feedback. 

The startup competes with the likes of Sputnik Brain, Mave Health, Dusq among others.

The funding comes at a time when the wearable healthtech segment is evolving beyond basic fitness tracking, with affluent consumers increasingly adopting devices focused on mental wellness, sleep optimisation and health. While smartwatches and fitness bands initially drove the broader wearables boom, a new wave of startups is now building specialised neurotechnology and biofeedback-based products aimed at stress reduction, focus enhancement and mental wellbeing.

For instance, healthtech startup Mave Health raised $2.1 Mn (about ₹18 Cr) in a seed funding round led by Blume Ventures in March to launch its wearable headset in India and the US, while also expanding its manufacturing capabilities.

Similarly, earlier this year, Inc42 reported that Deepinder Goyal’s wearable startup Temple raised $54 Mn at a post-money valuation of about $190 Mn from friends and family investors, including NK Squared, along with existing Zomato backers such as Peak XV Partners and Steadview Capital.

At the heart of this lies the Indian smart wearables market, which is estimated to grow into a market size of $10.26 Bn by 2031.

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