brainjo Raises €2M to Treat Mental Health with Virtual Reality

Mental healthcare has a delivery problem. Therapists are overbooked, waitlists stretch for months, and patients — especially children — often disengage before treatment takes effect. Regensburg-based brainjo thinks virtual reality can change that, and High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) just backed the bet with a €2 million seed round.

brainjo builds VR and brain-computer interface (BCI) solutions designed to treat a range of mental health conditions. Its current flagship product, Hyperhero, targets ADHD in children aged 8 to 13. The therapy unfolds across 24 sessions — structured into 5 modules over roughly 3 months — where patients complete around 40 minutes of VR therapy per session. The visual world draws inspiration from games like Fortnite and Minecraft: players travel through historical worlds (Antiquity, the Middle Ages, Early Japan) while battling “Time Pirates” that represent real ADHD-typical problems like screen distraction and task avoidance.

What makes the approach clinically interesting is how the therapy integrates real-world challenges into VR. Everyday tasks — like homework — are simulated inside the game, letting children practise coping strategies in an immersive environment. AI-powered non-player characters (NPCs) play active therapeutic roles: “Chipper GPT 9500” acts as an in-game therapist explaining tasks and encouraging the use of learned strategies, while “Agent Quassel” deliberately models ADHD-typical behaviour for children to correct. A companion parents’ app supports progress tracking, therapy insights, and parental education.

The therapy has been developed in close collaboration with leading ADHD specialists, including Prof. Dr. Anja Görtz-Dorten (Head of the AKiP Institute at the University of Cologne) and Prof. Dr. Manfred Döpfner (former Head of AKiP and author of the therapy manuals used as the clinical foundation). brainjo also runs an active community of 70+ families who participate in regular feedback groups, monthly usability tests, and surveys.

On the regulatory front, brainjo is pursuing DiGA certification — Germany’s pathway for prescription digital therapeutics that allows approved apps to be prescribed by doctors and reimbursed by public health insurers. This is a meaningful strategic moat: DiGA status turns a consumer health product into reimbursable clinical infrastructure.

The team

brainjo is led by two co-founders and managing directors. CEO Christian Michael Gnerlich brings the vision: described internally as “the visionary who turns ideas into reality,” he combines a background in electrical engineering and AI with deep focus on mental health and organisational development. Co-founder and managing director Markus Wensauer serves as the strategic counterpart, driving innovation with a focus on the bigger picture.

The core team includes Alexander Pilling as Lead Developer for Virtual Reality, Philipp Speierl as Full Stack Developer, Florian Amthor and Mykyta Ivanin as Game Developers, and Samuel Reiprich as Product Owner and Network Manager. The company also runs a brainjo Academy training programme for certified VR therapy trainers.

The advisory board brings academic and entrepreneurial credibility: Prof. Peter Schmieder (Founder and Scientific Director of the Bavarian Innovation Transformation Center, Santa Clara University), Prof. Dr. Steffen Hamm (Digital Healthcare Management, OTH Amberg-Weiden), Prof. Dr. Christoph Palm (Professor for Medical Image Computing, Regensburg Center of Health Sciences and Technology), Dr. Florian Seidl (Author and Scientist, Regensburg School of Mindfulness), and Geoff Baum (VP of Marketing at Acceldata, Stanford University, Lead Mentor from the Silicon Valley Program). The company is based at Franz-Mayer-Straße 1 in Regensburg and has backing from Meta and the German Federal Ministry.

Beyond ADHD

brainjo is building towards a broader therapeutic platform — its pipeline page lists multiple therapeutic candidates beyond ADHD, with corporate health as a parallel revenue line. The company already offers VR solutions for workplace mental health (the VR HUB and VR BOX products), positioned around the idea that “the brain can be trained like a muscle.”

The €2 million seed round, led by HTGF, will be used to advance clinical validation of the neurotrainer product, scale the ongoing ADHD study (approximately 100 child participants), and accelerate the DiGA certification process.