Krishna Veer Singh on Trust, Tech, and the Case for a ‘Phygital’ Mental Health Revolution
By Arunima Rajan
In tech, speed is a feature. At Uber and Flipkart, Krishna Veer Singh mastered it. At Lissun, the CEO and Co-founder is discovering that in mental health, moving fast can miss what matters most.
Most mental health startups in India are purely digital. What lessons from your time at Uber and Flipkart led you to choose a phygital model for Lissun?
Lissun's decision to implement a phygital model melding in-person and online elements—was influenced by both Uber and Flipkart. These companies demonstrated how digital platforms can rapidly scale a business, automate tasks, and collect valuable user data. On the other hand, their purely digital approaches revealed the challenges lacking empathy and nuanced trust-based relations pose. In mental health, especially in the context of children and families with autism, ADHD, or learning difficulties, building a connection and trust that is interpersonal in nature is not possible when working online. At Flipkart, we saw the value of physical infrastructure like logistics hubs and how they helped establish reliability. Trust anchors are our in-person therapy centres that are complemented by our digital tools which support continuity, tracking, and accessibility between sessions. From Uber, we learned about the need for seamless offline and online integrations. This is why our clinicians use the app to enhance engagement between therapy sessions. The phygital model is not merely a business strategy; it is rooted in what this space requires: the compassion and depth of humanity fused with technology's efficiency and scale.
Krishna Veer Singh, CEO & CO Founder at LISSUN
Having raised five million dollars to date, can you explain your unit economics, including customer acquisition costs and the clinical outcome metrics you use to demonstrate ROI for hospital partners?
At Lissun, economics within the business are based on sustainability alongside measurable impact. Customer acquisition cost (CAC) sits between ₹3,000 to ₹7,000 in most cases and is acquired through word-of-mouth referrals, content-driven awareness, and collaborations. Actively engaged families generate an annual revenue of ₹30,000 to ₹60,000 for us depending on the intensity and duration of therapy whether it be behavioural therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, or special education. For our partnered hospitals, ROI is evident as clinical outcome metrics demonstrate patient progress is measurable with more than 30% improvement on standardized tools like the CBCL or SDQ over six months.
You have partnered with over 300 healthcare and educational institutions. What does a typical implementation timeline look like, what are the key integration steps, and how do you overcome cultural resistance to mental health services in traditional hospital settings?
Our partnership in general with a healthcare or educational institution takes over an 8 to 12-week implementation cycle. It begins with a thorough needs assessment and planning phase in which all the information is gathered, followed by a seamless digital platform integration with the partner's existing systems, including our EMRs and scheduling tools. Clinicians and staff had to undergo a precise comprehensive training of the workflows and tools. This is followed by an initial cohort of 25 to 50 families experiencing the model in practice, allowing for Detailed feedback and quick iteration. To address cultural resistance to mental health in conventional hospitals, we focus on revamp mental health as a developmental and life-skills enhancement service. We also share success stories, build empathy through staff workshops, and use data to show improvements in patient well-being and hospital performance, which helps win over institutional champions and frontline teams alike.
With 250 percent year-on-year growth and more than 250 competitors in the market, what sustainable competitive advantages have you built to protect your position, even if major players like Tata Digital enter the space?
Despite the presence of over 250 players in India’s mental health space and our own rapid 250% year-on-year growth, we have built deeply entrenched competitive advantages that safeguard our leadership. Lissun’s network of over 300 partner institutions across schools, hospitals, and corporates is not just about scale but also about depth of engagement. Our hybrid “phygital” model is hard to replicate because it requires on-ground expertise and digital fluency. Additionally, our vertically integrated care loop ranging from diagnostics to therapy, progress monitoring, and parent coaching is supported by proprietary tools and real-time clinical dashboards. We have cultivated a strong community of therapists through specialized recruitment, robust training, and a supportive work culture. Coupled with a rich repository of anonymized clinical data from tens of thousands of cases, our AI-driven personalization models and tools like ‘E.Mo’ offer differentiation that would take competitors years to match even for major digital entrants like Tata.
On AI integration, how do you balance the rapid development of your ‘E.Mo’ diagnostic assistant with the need for clinical validation and the regulatory approvals required for AI in healthcare in India?
With the development of our AI-based diagnostic assistant ‘E.Mo,’ we are acutely aware of the balance required between technological innovation and clinical responsibility in the current scenario. Our rollout strategy is phased and very cautious - starting with the internal testing using de-identified datasets, followed by rigorous multi-site validation studies in partnership with our hospital network. We prioritize clinical safety and practitioner trust above all, recognizing that in healthcare and especially mental health—the consequences of error are too high to justify speed without care.
You and Tarun both came from high-pressure environments. How have you adapted your leadership style for the mental health sector, and what cultural pillars differentiates Lissun from previous ventures?
Tarun and I come from high-pressure, high-growth environments Uber and Flipkart where speed, data and scale drove decision making. Moving into the mental health space required a complete rethinking of leadership style. At Lissun, our organisational culture prioritises empathy, safety and collaboration. We’ve built a “care-first” company where clinical outcomes and caregiver support trump growth-at-any-cost metrics. Our leadership model now focuses on slow, intentional decision making, reflective feedback loops and team member well-being. Clinician support groups, therapist mentoring and non-hierarchical decision making ensures Lissun remains human centric both internally and externally. This softer, more reflective leadership has been key to building trust and authenticity in everything we do.
As you expand from 40 to 50 cities, how do you tailor your service model for Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets, and what localization strategies ensure both quality and affordability?
As we go from 40 to 50 cities, much of our focus is on Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets where mental health needs are high, but access is limited. Our model in these regions is around affordability, cultural relevance and trust. We partner with local hospitals and paediatricians to plug into existing community frameworks. Therapies are delivered in local languages, with cultural references that resonate with children and families. We also use paraprofessionals locally recruited and trained who deliver care under remote supervision from senior therapists. Group therapies, short duration intensive programs and subsidized pricing structures help lower the entry barrier. We use WhatsApp based coaching and school tie-ups to keep care consistent and cost effective, so we can scale deeply into underserved areas.
Looking ahead five years, what does success look like for Lissun at a million lives impacted, and which bespoke metrics will you use to prove you are truly solving mental health at scale?
In 5 years Lissun means having impacted 1 million lives meaningfully – with measurable improvements in emotional, cognitive and behavioural health. We don’t define success by reach. Instead, we use custom metrics like the Child Progress Index (CPI) which aggregates outcomes across validated clinical tools and the Family Empowerment Metric (FEM) which measures how confident and supported parents feel in managing their child’s care. We also track the Institution Adoption Index (IAI) to measure partner engagement and the Therapist Burnout Index (TBI) to make sure our internal teams are energized and motivated. We want to create a model where mental health is embedded in mainstream paediatric and educational systems, led by technology but grounded in trust, empathy and evidence.
Got a story that Healthcare Executive should dig into? Shoot it over to arunima.rajan@hosmac.com—no PR fluff, just solid leads.