Bliss, a Finland-headquartered mental health startup originally founded in Albania, has raised $270,000 in angel funding led by Keiretsu Forum, Finest Love VC and Plug and Play, to build what it calls “culturally intelligent” AI infrastructure for therapy.
The round combines angel investment and non-dilutive grants and marks the first Albanian-Finnish startup investment for Keiretsu Forum, Finest Love VC and Plug and Play.
Bliss is tackling a problem most mental health startups ignore: culture.
More than 800 million people globally live outside their country of origin, yet most therapy platforms and AI mental health tools are designed for monolingual, culturally homogeneous markets. Translation isn’t enough. Cultural context matters, especially in therapy.
Bliss combines licensed therapists across more than 10 countries with AI-powered cultural and linguistic matching. But its bigger bet is on what it calls therapist-trained digital companions, supervised AI extensions trained on a therapist’s style, tone and approach.
Unlike generic AI therapy bots flooding the market, Bliss positions its AI as infrastructure that amplifies human care rather than replacing it.
“We’re not building another chatbot,” said founder Jona Doda, a London School of Economics alumna and former growth leader across fintech and proptech startups in Europe. “We’re building AI that understands the cultural layer of mental health, because that’s where most systems fail.”
Early Traction
Bliss says it has:
- 50+ licensed therapists onboarded
- Users across 10 countries
- Early B2B traction, including Raiffeisen Bank and We Love Mondays
- Development underway for its first supervised AI companion release
The company operates between Tirana and Helsinki, leveraging Finland’s deep tech ecosystem and Albania’s emerging startup scene.
Backed by Global Innovation Leaders
Keiretsu Forum is one of the world’s largest angel investor networks, with chapters across North America, Europe, and Asia, supporting early-stage companies through capital, mentorship, and global access.
Finest Love VC, led by Slush founder and Angry Birds creator Peter Vesterbacka and Tallinn–Helsinki tunnel visionary Kustaa Valtonen, invests in ambitious cross-border innovation connecting the Nordics to global markets.
Plug and Play, the Silicon Valley innovation platform known for early bets on PayPal and Dropbox, is among the backers. The company has been increasing its presence in emerging European ecosystems.
“Jona is an exceptional founder with relentless drive. That persistence is why we took Bliss seriously from the start. People are already turning to AI for emotional support, but most systems were never designed for real care. Bliss is building what the long-term model should look like: clinically grounded, culturally aware AI with strong human guardrails, and access to world-class therapists when it matters.”
– Dr. Ravik Mima, CEO, Keiretsu Forum SEE
The Bigger Bet
The mental health tech market is crowded. AI therapy tools are multiplying. Most rely on LLMs wrapped in conversational UI.
Bliss is betting that the next phase won’t be generic AI, but culturally specialized, clinician-supervised systems.
With the fresh funding, the company plans to:
- Launch the first version of therapist-trained AI companions
- Expand into additional diaspora markets, including the US
- Scale B2B partnerships with multinational employers
- Strengthen AI governance and clinical oversight frameworks
Bliss could become one of the first platforms to position AI not as a therapist replacement, but as a culturally aware extension of human expertise.
In a market saturated with wellness apps, that distinction might matter.
About Bliss
Bliss is a culturally attuned therapy platform helping diaspora communities and companies with diverse, international workforces access mental health care that truly understands their language, culture, and background. With licensed therapists across multiple countries and languages, and AI systems designed to amplify – not replace – human expertise, Bliss is redefining how therapy scales in a globalized world.
0 comments