YC backs seed round of startup that helps cut down tech addiction

Atmana, a startup that helps combat technology addiction, has raised US$500,000 in a seed round from Y Combinator and Goodwater Capital. Angel investors including Dhruv Gupta, co-founder of Orange Health, and Austen Allred, co-founder and CEO of Lambda School, also joined the round.

Team Atmana / Photo credit: Atmana

The funds will be used to scale up Atmana globally and boost its product development.

The India-based startup, which was part of the summer 2021 batch of Y Combinator, aims to help youngsters curb their gaming and pornography habit as well as social media use. Atmana does this via mobile-first solutions equipped with content filtering, combined with tried-and-tested methods for dealing with substance addictions like alcohol and smoking.

“We have psychiatrists and psychologists in our team who help us leverage proven techniques from addiction treatment in tackling technology addiction,” Atmana founder Tejas Balasubramanya told Tech in Asia.

Two years ago, Balasubramanya set out to build apps to help people form healthy habits. For instance, he developed an app designed to wake up users early and another one to reward people who would go to the gym regularly. However, he could not monetize these apps.

Undeterred, he decided to try another tack. “Maybe if I created an app to take away a harmful habit, it might click with customers,” he thought. This led to the birth of Atmana.

The startup’s first product is BlockerX, a solution designed to wean users away from porn by barring access to such sites. It runs on a “buddy system”: Users are paired off, and each person gets a daily report on the kind of content vie​​wed by their buddy. If a user wants to unblock a porn site, then they have to get their buddy’s approval first.

Atmana says it has more than 1.5 million users globally in over 100 countries. It also has more than 10,000 paying customers, primarily from the US, UK, Canada, and Germany.

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The startup is working on SocialX, which will help users reduce their social media consumption and reconnect with reality. The app combines screentime tracking with gamification.