Long waiting periods, inefficient processes, administrative overload, lack of digitalization, language barriers: Wilfried Njoya Talimeta experienced first-hand how difficult it is to get an appointment with a psychotherapist or psychologist in a timely manner. As part of a routine visit to the doctor, the current graduate of Hochschule RheinMain (HSRM) wanted to make use of Mental Health Support or psychotherapeutic measures. "After numerous inquiries to practical experiences and other facilities, I was told I would have to wait periods of two to sometimes three years," says the former Electrical and Aeronautical Engineering student. "That was a defining moment for me - especially with the question in the back of my mind of what happens when someone needs acute help."
With "IDA Health", Wilfried Njoya Talimeta and his team want to significantly improve the healthcare situation and are receiving an EXIST start-up grant for the further development of their healthcare platform. With this program, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy supports university graduates, scientists and students for one year in preparing their technology-oriented and knowledge-based business start-ups.
"I am very pleased for the founding team around Wilfried Njoya Talimeta about the EXIST scholarship," said Professor Andreas Brensing, HSRM Vice-President for Research, Entrepreneurship and Science Communication. "The funding provides important financial basics for one year on the way to implementing the business idea. Many thanks also to our start-up support team, who are providing strong support for the start-up project."
Contact with therapist allows idea to mature
After his unsuccessful search, Wilfried Njoya Talimeta took a close look at the care situation in Germany and met the licensed psychological psychotherapist Ralf Jostes, who is now part of his team. From him, Wilfried Njoya Talimeta learned about the structural causes: high bureaucratic requirements, insufficient digitalization and many work steps that could already be sensibly digitalized or supported by artificial intelligence (AI). The realization that millions of people suffer from this was the decisive factor that motivated him to found a start-up.
The specific idea: the platform combines innovative AI assistants for psychotherapists with configurable AI agents that carry out structured preliminary and follow-up consultations. These agents collect anamnesis, symptoms, previous history, expectations and progress feedback and create standardized summaries and protocols. "First and foremost, we want to enable people to find the right psychologist or psychotherapist for them quickly and easily via our platform - with just a few clicks and without lengthy search processes," explains Wilfried Njoya Talimeta.
"We also support mental health professionals in fully digitalizing the key steps of the care processes - both in diagnostics and therapy - or automating them with the help of artificial intelligence." To this end, he and his team, which includes Ralf Jostes, Tim Prellwitz (graduate of the Digital Business Management degree program) and Ida Tatsinda (graduate of the Environmental Technology degree program), have systematically analysed diagnostic and therapeutic processes for various disorders and mapped them digitally in a structured manner.
A third point that was important to the team is the reduction of language barriers "Many people - especially those who do not speak German as their mother tongue or come from crisis and war zones - have only had limited access to psychological care to date," says Wilfried Njoya Talimeta. "The integrated, automated translation system of our platform supports communication in 15 different languages and thus facilitates access to psychological help regardless of the respective native language."
Great interest from practical experiences and clinics
Wilfried Njoya Talimeta proudly reports that there are already seven letters of intent from practical experiences that would like to use "IDA Health" once it is completed. "The first practical experiences have already tested our prototype and described the time savings as considerable. Around 30 practical experiences, clinics and mental health professionals are currently on our waiting list."
Funding from the EXIST program will begin in March 2026, with each team member receiving €2,500 per month for one year to cover their living expenses, plus a lump sum of €30,000 for materials and €5,000 for consulting. The university will also receive an additional €12,500 incentive bonus for start-up-specific support for the project. Dr. Vbronia Saeed from RheinMain StartUpLabs, who submitted the funding application, is responsible for this: "This is the first EXIST scholarship for the university since 2020 and is therefore a great success for us and, of course, for the funded team!"
Ambitious goals
Wilfried Njoya Talimeta and his team can make good use of the scholarship, as their goals are ambitious. "With the help of EXIST funding, we want to further refine our prototype, carry out extensive tests, implement the first pilot applications, officially found the company and acquire our first customers," says the founder. "In the long term, we plan to roll out the product first in Germany, then in the DACH region, Europe-wide and later internationally. Our goal is to sustainably improve the quality of patient care worldwide and build the largest digital health ecosystem in the field of psychotherapy and psychology."
The "IDA Health" project (funding code: 03EGTHE044) is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the European Social Fund Plus (ESF Plus) as part of the EXIST program.
