AImoji is a U.S.-based AI startup focused on human-centered innovations, especially in digital health and interaction technologies. Pulse 2.0 interviewed AImoji founder and CEO Aoi Minamoto to gain a deeper understanding of the company. AImoji’s flagship product is the KinaBot, which is a voice-and-conversation-based brain health barometer.
Aoi Minamoto’s Background
Could you tell me more about your background? Minamoto said:
“I’m an AI researcher and entrepreneur with a background at the intersection of Economics, Data Science, and Human-Computer Interaction. My journey began in data analytics for an Advertising Company in Tokyo, Japan. Later I expanded to machine learning and AI, followed by hands-on experience building data-driven solutions at Panasonic Energy and other organizations.”
“Most recently, I founded Kinabot—a digital voice biomarker platform designed to help detect early cognitive decline through everyday speech. My work is driven by both a personal commitment to making healthcare more proactive and accessible and professional recognition as an IEEE Senior Member. Through Kinabot, I’m dedicated to empowering doctors, patients, and families with tools that enable earlier detection and intervention for dementia and related conditions. I’m passionate about connecting with innovators across healthcare, technology, and venture networks to advance this mission in the US and beyond.”
Formation Of The Company
How did the idea for the company come together? Minamoto shared:
“The idea for Kinabot came from my experience working at the intersection of data science and human-computer interaction, as well as my personal encounters with the challenges of early dementia detection. While working on other tools that applied data-driven solutions since 2017, I realized there was huge untapped potential in everyday speech as a window into cognitive health. Since July 2022, when I moved to the US, I often think of my grandmother, who lives alone in Japan. Voice calls through the phone every week have become our only ‘connection.’”
“How can I monitor her cognitive health through voice? I started to think about building a tool to analyze her voice. On May 3rd, 2025, the first version was launched. I applied Natural Language Processing to make a tool that scores the main indicators that reflect changes in cognitive health. You can use it for free. We have tested more than 100 users in the US. Once you upload the recorded conversation to the website, you can read your own cognitive health scores, just as you measure your temperature. We aim to be the cognitive barometer for everyone, since we can make this tool by applying NLP in any language.”
“As I spoke to clinicians, patients, and families, it became clear that early-stage changes are often missed simply because there aren’t practical, accessible tools to pick them up in real life. After I participated in the 25th Annual Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias in Jackson, Mississippi, we have validated Kinabot’s potential as a digital voice biomarker through research discussions with a leading U.S. medical center biobank. After the pilot study, we believe Kinabot will contribute not only to detecting the cognitive decline signals from daily speech, but also, in the future, we can add one more indicator to everyone’s health check report.”
“After the pilot study, Kinabot aims to become a digital voice biomarker platform that could analyze natural conversations and flag early cognitive changes, empowering both doctors and families to act sooner. My goal was to bridge cutting-edge AI with genuine clinical need, making early detection possible for millions who might otherwise go undiagnosed.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Minamoto reflected:
“As a founder and tool inventor, my favorite memory so far has been seeing how much we’ve accomplished since launching Kinabot. We’ve already discussed an R&D partnership with a leading medical research organization and received invaluable mentoring from the NEC-X VC team in Palo Alto. The momentum and support from top healthcare and innovation leaders have been both exciting and deeply validating for our mission. We are on the brink of a major scale-up. A leading Japanese life insurance company is in the final phase of integrating our analytics tool, positioning us to immediately enhance care and insights for their community of over one million seniors.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Minamoto explained:
“Our flagship product, Kinabot, puts actionable information in your hands, making it easier to take charge of your brain health. Kinabot is a tool that analyzes your natural conversations, either daily or at your own pace, to generate an analytics report scoring key cognitive health indicators. Kinabot does more than analyze uploaded conversation data. It can be integrated directly into your core platforms—like Zoom, Teams, or WhatsApp—to provide live analysis during conversations, turning every call into a source of instant insight.
Kinabot tracks subtle changes in your voice and words to provide an early warning system for your health. By monitoring your score trends, you gain clear insights that prompt proactive conversations with a neurologist, enabling early detection of over 10 conditions linked to speech changes.”
“We offer two types of services. Individual users can create their own page to manage their data and monitor changes with each analysis; we also provide analytics solutions for medical centers, doctors, and pharmaceutical companies looking to assess cognitive health trends across large datasets.”
Challenges Faced
Have you faced any challenges in your sector of work recently? Minamoto acknowledged:
“Like many working at the intersection of AI and healthcare, one big challenge I’ve faced is navigating the complex regulatory landscape and earning trust for new digital health tools, especially when it comes to sensitive data, like voice biomarkers. Building traction as a young company is tough when hospitals and partners are naturally cautious. What really helped me overcome these hurdles was joining the NEC-X Elev X Ignite program.”
“Through their support and mentoring in Palo Alto, I gained access to expert advice on compliance, product validation, and global scaling. The NEC-X network not only boosted my confidence but also taught me many methodologies as an entrepreneur. I’ve learned how to design interviews, discovering the emotional moment when people decide to buy a product or service. How to pinpoint the real needs behind the speech analytics solution. In the first phase of development, NEC-X opened doors to critical R&D partnerships and pilot opportunities, helping Kinabot move from idea to real-world impact much faster than I could have on my own.”
Evolution Of The Company’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Minamoto noted:
“Our waitlist began in February 2025, and we have been receiving valuable feedback from more than 100 active Kinabot users. On August 20th, after participating in the 25th Annual Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias, I gained insights from many physicians, then began a collaboration with a leading U.S. medical center to launch a pilot study with a senior clinical researcher.”
“This pilot will address a global challenge: as populations age, dementia and cognitive impairment are rising dramatically. Alzheimer’s disease alone affects more than 55 million people worldwide, projected to reach 153 million by 2050. Early detection is critical, but current tools—MRI, PET, and in-person neuropsychological testing—remain expensive, invasive, and less accessible.”
“Research increasingly shows that speech analysis is a powerful, non-invasive biomarker of cognitive decline. Speech reflects integrated cognitive domains such as attention, memory, executive function, and language, and AI now makes it possible to extract and analyze these features in real time, even from short samples.”
“The Kinabot platform (https://www.Kinabot.com/) is a conversational AI agent designed for cognitive support and social interaction. It enables natural conversations, captures nuanced speech data, and fosters daily engagement in both clinical and community settings.”
“This pilot study will evaluate Kinabot’s speech analytics capacity by comparing spontaneous speech from AI-driven and human interactions in older adults across varying cognitive statuses, to advance accessible, scalable early screening methods for dementia.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Minamoto cited:
“Since its founding, Kinabot has achieved several significant milestones:
– February 2025 – Opened our waitlist and began building early user interest.
– May 3, 2025 – Released the first version of Kinabot, with over 100+ users testing the platform and providing feedback on real-time speech analytics, including polarity, subjectivity, lexical diversity, and sentence length.
– August 20, 2025 – Participated in the 25th Annual Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias, which led to valuable physician insights and new collaborations.
– September 30, Kinabot joins Bakar Bio Labs, UC Berkeley’s premier life science incubator. This provides access to a world-class innovation ecosystem to accelerate our pilot studies, partnerships, and product development in AI-driven cognitive assessment.
–October 6th, 2025- launch of our Japanese platform was a key milestone, transforming Kinabot into a multi-lingual tool and commencing our ambitious roadmap to add further language analytics capabilities.
These achievements underscore Kinabot’s progress into a dynamic analytics platform. They demonstrate the immediate power of NLP to convert human speech into personal insights, creating value across diverse applications and empowering users to harness the data in their own voice.”
Customer Success Stories
When asking Minamoto about customer success stories, she revealed:
“One of our most meaningful early success stories came directly from our waitlist community. From May to October 2025, more than 100 people have actively used Kinabot after signing up for the waitlist. Many told us they were excited to see their own conversation analytics for the first time—scores such as polarity, subjectivity, diversity, and average sentence length—because it gave them a tangible way to reflect on their cognitive health.”
Revenue/Funding
When asking Minamoto about the company’s revenue and funding details, she revealed:
“At this stage, Kinabot has focused on product development, clinical validation, and early partnerships. We launched our first public version in May 2025 and already have over 100 early users engaging with the platform. We are now pursuing two key market entry paths: initiating a pilot study with a premier U.S. medical research center and collaborating with a senior care service to embed our analytics directly into their platform. These parallel engagements validate the demand for our tool and its scalable integration potential.”
“On the funding side, we are currently bootstrapped and actively preparing for our first institutional fundraising round. The capital will support expanding clinical pilots, refining our multilingual speech analytics models, and building partnerships in healthcare and insurance markets.”
“Our vision is to scale Kinabot into a platform with multiple revenue streams—from clinical screening tools to insurance/eldercare risk assessment and enterprise health platforms—creating both strong impact and sustainable growth.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Minamoto assessed:
U.S. Total Addressable Market (TAM) for Kinabot
- U.S. Alzheimer’s Disease Diagnostics Market
- Valued at $3.53 billion in 2024, with a projected 10.6% CAGR through 2030, GlobeNewswire.
- This includes imaging, biomarkers, and assessments—areas where Kinabot’s non-invasive speech analytics could become a meaningful alternative or complement.
- U.S. Dementia Care Technology Market
- The broader dementia care market, covering pharmaceuticals and tech-enabled solutions, is currently around $18 billion and expected to grow at ~8% through 2030 Nelson Advisors BlogTowards Healthcare.
- Memory Care Market
- The U.S. memory care market is already $6.95 billion in 2023 and projected to reach $11.5 billion by 2033 (5.2% CAGR) Nova One Advisor.
- Societal Cost of Dementia in the U.S.
Healthcare, long-term care, and hospice costs for people aged 65+ with dementia are estimated at $384 billion in 2025, PMC. While not a direct TAM figure, this highlights the massive cost burden and potential demand for early, scalable screening solutions like Kinabot.
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Minamoto affirmed:
“In my opinion, while there are several tools in the market that aim to detect dementia or other conditions through voice and speech analysis, most of them share a common approach: they focus exclusively on selling to pharmaceutical, biotech, or healthcare companies. Very few, if any, are trying to make this technology accessible directly to individuals.”
“I understand the business logic behind the B2B model—it’s where the funding and infrastructure often are. Perhaps because I’m a woman and an immigrant founder, I see things a little differently. I strongly believe in balancing B2B and B2C. That’s why at Kinabot, we’re building a tool that’s not only scientifically grounded but also intuitive, user-friendly, and accessible. For example, our app includes a one-click function to generate an easy-to-understand analytics report—designed specifically for individual users, even on a free plan.”
“I believe every person has the right to understand their own biological and cognitive health—just like knowing your height, weight, or body temperature. Even if someone doesn’t have insurance or the means to seek medical treatment, they should still have a tool that gives them insight into their brain and cognitive condition, or that of a loved one.”
“So, while we do collaborate with healthcare professionals and explore pilot programs with institutions, my mission is also to empower individuals. That’s the heart of what makes Kinabot different.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future goals? Minamoto emphasized:
“Kinabot is strategically positioned to become the standard in voice-based cognitive health analytics. Our roadmap focuses on validation, commercialization, and regulatory clearance to drive large-scale adoption. Clinical Validation: We are currently collaborating with a leading U.S. medical research center to validate Kinabot’s ability to deliver reliable cognitive insights in healthcare settings.”
“Pharmaceutical Partnerships: Our next growth milestone is to partner with major pharmaceutical companies. Today, drug efficacy is typically measured at the group or average level, which leaves gaps in understanding individual patient outcomes. Kinabot introduces a responsive analytics method that measures each individual’s cognitive health directly from speech. This enables pharmaceutical partners to demonstrate not only population-level improvements but also clinically meaningful changes for each person. By doing so, we help validate treatment impact at the pre-clinical stage of Alzheimer’s and dementia, strengthening the ability to expand drug adoption to a broader patient base.”
“Hospital Expansion: Hospitals like Kaiser are already recording and transcribing patient-doctor conversations. By embedding Kinabot into these workflows, we can transform existing voice data into actionable cognitive health analytics, enabling scalable adoption without disrupting current systems.”
“Voice as a Biomarker: Adding cognitive voice analytics to medical reports creates a new category of biomarkers. This allows physicians to track cognitive change alongside traditional diagnostics, opening new revenue streams in precision medicine and preventative care.”
“Early Detection & New Markets: The ability to detect pre-clinical dementia and other speech-related disease signals positions Kinabot at the forefront of early-intervention healthcare—a market with multi-billion-dollar potential.”
“Regulatory Pathway: Our long-term goal is FDA clearance as a Software as a Medical Device (SaMD), unlocking reimbursement opportunities and accelerating adoption across healthcare providers, insurers, and global health systems.”
“By aligning with pharma, hospitals, and regulatory bodies, Kinabot is building a defensible position in a rapidly expanding market where speech becomes a vital, scalable health biomarker.”
Additional Thoughts
Any other topics you would like to discuss? Minamoto concluded:
“Yes—something I often think about is the lack of women in both data science and startup leadership roles, even here in Silicon Valley. As a Japanese woman pursuing my second master’s degree in data science, I initially assumed that the U.S. would have more women in STEM. But in my class, only less than 15% were women—and the vast majority were international students like me.”
“That realization really pushed me. I want to prove that women can not only thrive in STEM, but also build profitable, impactful startups. That’s why I’m so committed to making Kinabot succeed—not just as a product, but as a business that creates real value. I even flew to Mississippi on my own to attend a dementia conference, where I met medical professionals, searched for advisors, and explored pilot opportunities. My goal is to refine Kinabot until it can reliably detect voice and speech features associated with dementia and other speech-aware conditions.”
“For me, this isn’t just about entrepreneurship—it’s about showing what’s possible when women in STEM are empowered to lead, innovate, and execute. I’m working hard to build that reality.”
