Hyderabad, India | July 2025: In a market saturated with AI tools that can search, summarize, and schedule, one homegrown startup is building something radically different — an AI that simply listens. WTMF (What’s The Matter, Friend?), developed by Knockverse Private Limited, is gearing up for its beta launch between late August and early September 2025. And already, the app is generating quiet buzz among early adopters, mental wellness advocates, and digital-first Gen Z users across India.
Unlike traditional chatbots that aim to “fix” or provide advice, WTMF is built to be emotionally available — offering judgment-free, culturally fluent conversations that help users vent, rant, or reflect. The app features chat and voice support, mood tracking, and AI journaling, all designed to feel like talking to a close friend, not a therapist or assistant.
“We didn’t set out to build the smartest AI. We set out to build the kindest,” says co-founder Kruthivarsh Koduru, a psychology graduate from Bhavan’s Vivekananda College, who leads product and emotional design.
The idea for WTMF was born from lived experience — long nights, heavy thoughts, and the lack of someone to talk to. Along with Kruthivarsh Koduru Co-founder Shreyak Singh, who also Co-founded the Reel-Making aggregator platform Flashoot (recently valued at ₹22 Cr).
The team includes rising talent like Aman Singh, a Flutter developer from Parul University who leads mobile engineering, and Vikas KV, an operations and business strategy lead with an MSc from the University of York, UK. Together, the founding team is combining technical skill, emotional insight, and strategic execution to bring a distinctly Indian emotional AI to life.
What makes WTMF unique is its cultural context. The AI understands Hinglish, responds to local idioms like “mood off hai” or “uff yaar”, and is being trained for multilingual support across Indian languages in future versions. The app doesn’t offer toxic positivity or robotic solutions — just presence, listening, and an invitation to feel without being fixed.
Currently, over 3,000 users have signed up for early access, and the app’s pre-launch community is growing rapidly through Instagram, Discord, and Reddit.
As WTMF prepares for its beta, the team is actively inviting early believers, research collaborators, and mental wellness partners to shape the future of emotionally intelligent AI in India.
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