Mental Health VC Shiv Bhavnani on building GIMBHI and AI Diagnostics
"I feel like the mind is really the gateway to the software of humanity. We all operate using this tool we call the mind, and we still don't understand it."
"I look for problem obsession. Founders who know the problem in and out, very obsessed, they know every groove and like every secret way into the castle. That passion gets alchemized into real knowledge or attempts at gaining knowledge."
"Good sleep and structured self-reflection, asking why did I do that, why did I think that, why did I feel that, and getting answers rather than just running toward the next thing in your life."
Shiv Bhavnani, partner at EVIO VC and founder of GIMBHI, recounts how a career-defining moment at a ratings agency, choosing to speak out about fraud risk in marketplace-lending securities, redirected him back to his original calling of neuroscience and mental health, and shares what he believes AI can and cannot yet do in diagnosing and treating mental illness.
What you'll learn
- Mental health and brain health have been systematically underfunded for decades not primarily because of scientific complexity but because of social stigma and deprioritisation, you cannot see a mental illness the way you can see a tumour.
- Choosing to speak out about risk that powerful stakeholders preferred to ignore is a career-defining moment that can redirect professional energy toward more aligned work.
- Our current psychiatric classifications (DSM) may be oversimplified; AI has the potential to redefine what depression, anxiety, and other disorders actually are by identifying subtypes and biomarkers within broader categories.
- Access to mental health care is a larger systemic problem than treatment efficacy; companies that solve the operational complexity of serving Medicaid populations, for example, are doing work that is less glamorous but highly impactful.
- Problem obsession in founders, not just mission passion but a deep, granular understanding of every aspect of the problem, is detectable in pitches and is one of the most reliable signals for investment.
- Self-awareness about strengths and weaknesses is a prerequisite for building a strong founding team; you can only plug gaps you have acknowledged.
- Good sleep, blackout conditions, cool temperatures, and daily journaling are simple and evidence-grounded practices that meaningfully support mental health.
Key moments from the conversation
A neuroscience student who failed out of his courses
Shiv began university as a neuroscience major fascinated by the brain. After a rough year at 19 in which he failed nearly all his courses in one semester, his advisor suggested he drop the major and take neuroscience for enjoyment instead. He graduated in economics, entered finance, and spent years working in structured credit, a career he describes as intellectually stimulating but divorced from his personal mission.
Speaking out about fraud risk in marketplace lending
Working late at a ratings agency, Shiv discovered that securitised marketplace-lending bonds had no validation of the loan information they were based on. He raised it internally and then, when the agency refused to publish his findings, wrote them up for a news outlet under his own name. That decision became a pivotal turning point in his career.
GIMBHI: building a market intelligence base for mental health investment
GIMBHI began as a newsletter and grew into a research and consulting firm tracking every investor, startup, funding round, and trend in the global mental health innovation ecosystem. Shiv conducted more than 30 calls per week with founders and investors in the early period, building the data foundation that now makes GIMBHI a resource for funds, nonprofits, and corporates.
Why AI could rewrite the DSM
Shiv's thesis is that what we call depression is probably multiple overlapping disorders, and that voice-based, blood-based, and digital-behaviour biomarkers could allow AI to reclassify mental illness into more precise subtypes. This reclassification would, in turn, unlock more targeted and effective treatments, a change he sees as necessary rather than optional.
Third Space Therapy: unglamorous but impactful
Among his EVIO portfolio companies, Shiv highlighted Third Space Therapy, which streamlines the compliance and operational complexity of delivering mental health care to Medicaid patients, a population severely underserved because the economics of Medicaid reimbursement make it unprofitable for most providers to participate.
Frequently asked questions
What is GIMBHI?
GIMBHI, the Global Institute of Mental and Brain Health Investment, is a research and consulting firm founded by Shiv Bhavnani. It tracks the entire mental health innovation ecosystem, funding, investors, startups, and trends, and is hired by investment funds, angel investors, nonprofits, and corporates for strategy, due diligence, business development, and recruiting in the mental health space.
What does EVIO VC invest in?
EVIO VC backs early-stage startups at the intersection of mental health and human performance. The fund assesses founders using a complex process that includes evaluating problem obsession and self-awareness alongside the more standard product and market criteria.
Can AI replace therapists?
Shiv sees AI as most powerful for reclassifying and diagnosing mental illness rather than as a treatment agent per se, though he acknowledges that tens of millions of people already use consumer LLMs for emotional support, suggesting demand for AI-assisted mental health tools is very real.
What does Shiv Bhavnani look for when investing in mental health startups?
Problem obsession is the primary signal, founders who understand every detail of the problem they are solving, not just its emotional weight. Self-awareness about personal strengths and weaknesses is also a key criterion, because only founders who know their gaps can build teams to fill them.
Who is Shiv Bhavnani?
Shiv Bhavnani
Partner & Founder · EVIO VC / GIMBHI
Shivan Bhavnani is a healthcare investor focused on building the future of mental health. He is a Partner at Evio VC, where he backs early-stage mental, behavioral, and brain health startups. He also founded GIMBHI, an research and consulting firm that supports investors and innovators in brain, behavioral, and mental health. GIMBHI's insights have been featured by Nature, Axios, Business Insider, Entrepreneur, Bessemer Venture Partners, and many organizations. Shivan brings over ten years of experience across venture capital, biotech, and credit. He's led investments in digital health and mental health startups, developed theses on generative AI in psychiatry, and worked closely with major healthcare influencers including former World Bank President Dr. Jim Yong Kim. At Two Bridge Capital and Noetic Fund, he sourced and evaluated hundreds of deals. Before becoming a VC, Shivan spent time in the financial world, authoring 1,500+ reports and articles at S&P Global and working on debt capital markets at Moody's and Willis Towers Watson. His academic path includes an MBA from Duke University (with a healthcare focus) and a BA in Economics and English from Wesleyan University. In addition, he completed an innovation fellowship at Columbia University's Psychiatry Department. He is also a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA). Currently, he is a regular speaker at global conferences on healthcare innovation and published voice in the field. He received a book deal to cover the entire landscape of AI applications on mental healthcare. In addition, he has been chosen for nonprofit leadership as the co-chair of Healthtech Hunches, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the One Mind Accelerator, and others.
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