KENYA – Kenyan mental health startup Shamiri Institute has partnered with Alchemy Pay (ACH), the world’s leading fiat-crypto payment gateway, to support research in mental health intervention and improvement for adolescents and young adults.
Shamiri received Sh11.4 million (US$100,000) in funding from Alchemy Pay towards wearable electronic devices with sensors that collect physiological data to ensure monitoring and assessment of patients in a discreet manner.
The technologically advanced approach to data collection through wearable devices will allow patients to monitor their accumulated data as well as help healthcare providers to personalize a patient’s healthcare program.
Mental health is a growing challenge in Kenya with a very high prevalence of depression among the youth where research shows that 1 out of 4 people looking for medical care in the country has a mental health condition.
Shamiri Institute is a non-profit organization that leverages cutting edge data driven social science research along with a deep knowledge of the communities it works with to respond to mental health issues and build a future in which young people can actualize their life potential.
Shamiri Co-founders, a team of scientific advisors and collaborators will aid in designing and planning the wearables study protocol as well as be involved in data collection and the subsequent data analysis.
“The wearable devices are expected to allow us unique insight into moment-to-moment participant wellbeing as they go about their lives,” said Katherine Venturo-Conerly, Shamiri Institute Co-founder.
She outlined that using wearables is an informative and exciting new research direction that will hopefully help Shamiri to better understand individuals’ health and well-being as they are experienced in the world.
She further acknowledged the support of the innovative team at Alchemy Pay to bring cutting-edge science to Kenya which will help provide mental health solutions for those in need.
Head of Communications at Alchemy Pay Karmen Tang said the global blockchain company is focused on supporting social causes that go beyond financial reform especially mental health challenges that were exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We can broaden the scope of what we do beyond decentralized finance and into the healthcare industry among other social causes by supporting the fantastic work Shamiri is doing,” Karmen noted.
He revealed that ACH has supported other initiatives in Africa other than the Shamiri Institute such as Alchemy Coin partnership with CTI Africa as well as collaborations with South African Algorand.
In addition, Alchemy Pay is in discussions with officials in the Kingdom of Lesotho, Sudan and Botswana to ensure citizens access global finance through the use of cryptocurrency payments and investment.
The organization has also introduced the Blockchain Infrastructure Alliance alongside Avalanche, NEAR, and Polygon to bring together industry leaders across all areas of blockchain technology and collectively promote changes in global finance.
Earlier, Alchemy declared that its valuation has nearly tripled to US$10.2 billion after a funding round led by Lightspeed and Silver Lake with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue Management, Pantera Capital and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.
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