Consumer digital health · Pediatric behavior
Joon Health
A gamified app that turns a child’s ADHD, autism or anxiety routines into quests for a virtual pet. Two funding rounds and a growing user base are on the public record; an FDA clearance and a published clinical trial are not.
Brushing teeth as a side quest
A parent in Dinkum Tribe’s review described the change in her house after a month with the app: “My kids were rushing to get their chores and homeschool work done, and I didn’t even have to remind them!” A child opens Joon, sees a small creature called a Doter waiting to be fed and washed, and the only way to earn the coins for that care is to finish the tasks a parent set up first, things like brushing teeth, getting dressed, or starting homework.
The idea, according to co-founder Kevin Bunarjo, is not simple gamification. “Going past just mere gamification tactics, we are building an immersive game where the real life progress of a kid is translated to progress in the game,” he told Authority Magazine in 2022.
The gap it is aimed at
Pediatric behavior disorders, ADHD, autism, anxiety and depression among them, are common, and the specialists who treat them are scarce. Families can wait months for an appointment with a child psychologist. Joon’s pitch is that a family does not have to wait for a clinic visit to start structuring a child’s day.
The company frames its long term goal in regulatory language. Its Y Combinator listing describes Joon as a “pediatric digital therapeutic” and says the company plans, over ten years, to be “the first-line vertically integrated digital treatment for pediatric behavior disorders.” That is a clinical claim. Today the product ships as a consumer wellness and parenting app, sold directly to families by subscription, not as an FDA authorized treatment.
Three classmates at Berkeley
Isaac Eaves, Brad Brenner and Kevin Bunarjo met as undergraduates at UC Berkeley. Eaves studied computer science and business administration; Brenner, originally from Romania, studied business administration; Bunarjo, who grew up in Jakarta, studied computer science and business administration and traces his interest in building things to childhood hours spent on Minecraft. Bunarjo has said Joon was an idea the three talked about in college, shelved as too ambitious, then picked back up a year after graduation as a side project. “After a month of development, I built a very basic version with a buggy todo list and a simple hand drawn character you feed,” he said. Eaves has ADHD himself and has said he spent more than 10,000 hours playing games as a kid, an experience he has pointed to as the reason he wanted to build a game kids would actually choose to play.
They started the company in 2021. Apple’s App Store listing credits the app to “Joon App, Inc.” and marks its copyright from 2021, matching the founding year the founders give Y Combinator and Founders, Inc. One local business profile from October 2022 instead described the app as “launched in 2020,” and a 2025 consumer review site put the founding year at 2018 and the headquarters in Laguna Niguel, California, both of which contradict every other source checked for this page, including the company’s own YC and Founders, Inc. listings.
Chattanooga, Y Combinator, and a widening product
By October 2022 the founders were living and working out of Brickyard, a venture backed startup incubator in Chattanooga, Tennessee, an itinerant chapter that came alongside a $2.1 million seed round from angel investors including Y Combinator, Goodwater Capital and Cathexis Ventures, according to the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce. Joon went through Y Combinator’s Winter 2022 batch. A year later, in October 2023, a Medium report on the company described a further $6.4 million round led by MaC Venture Capital and Dune Ventures, with Blue Lion Global and North South Ventures also participating.
The product grew alongside the money. Founders, Inc., which lists Joon Health in its portfolio, says the app has passed 1 million users and cites company reported results of a 90 percent task completion rate, a 30 percent reduction in disruptive behaviors and a 73 percent drop in arguments between parents and kids. By 2025 the company had layered a clinical strategy team, parent coaching and therapist referrals onto the original app, rebranding its main site from joonapp.io to joonhealth.co and describing itself as “The Complete Pediatric Behavioral Health Platform.”
What is proven, and what is still claimed
| Evidence | What the record shows | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| FDA clearance | No 510(k) or PMA record for Joon was found in an FDA search, and none is listed in the company’s own enrichment record. Joon’s Y Combinator listing nonetheless describes it as a “digital therapeutic,” a term the FDA generally reserves for software it has authorized as a medical device. | Differs from record |
| Observational study | Joon publishes a white paper describing an eight week observational study of behavior and executive functioning, reporting the 30 percent, 73 percent, 89 percent and 90 percent figures cited above. It has not been published in a peer reviewed journal as far as this search found. | Company-stated |
| Randomized controlled trial | The company describes a second study comparing Joon users to an attention control group on behavior, executive functioning, parenting stress and internalizing symptoms after eight weeks. Joon’s research page says the RCT was run “in partnership with” an outside group but does not name it in the page text captured for this report. | Company-stated |
| Peer-reviewed publications | No PubMed record tying Joon, Joon Health or Joon App to a published study was found. The pediatric ADHD papers on record for this company profile come from unrelated authors and institutions. | Not found |
| Federal grants | No NIH or NSF award to Joon Health or Joon App was found. The NSF awards on record for this search all belong to unrelated university health science centers. | Not found |
| User base and ratings | The company has told interviewers user counts ranging from over 100,000 families (2022) to over 200,000 families and more than 1 million tasks completed (App Store listing) to more than 1 million users (Founders, Inc., 2026). The Apple App Store lists the app at 4.7 out of 5 stars across 5,900 reviews as of a 2025 review site check. | Company-stated |
| Funding on record | A $2.1 million seed round (Oct 2022) and a $6.4 million round (Oct 2023) are each reported once in independent coverage. No SEC Form D under any “Joon” company name was found on EDGAR as of this search. | Independent, unconfirmed by filing |
Read plainly: Joon is a working consumer app with a loyal following among parents of neurodivergent kids and two press reported funding rounds behind it. What is not on the record is any FDA authorization, any peer reviewed publication, or a federal filing that confirms either round’s size. The gap between the “digital therapeutic” language the company uses to describe its future and the consumer wellness app it sells today is the thing to watch closest.
What to watch
- Whether the observational study or the RCT gets published in a peer reviewed journal, or names its partner institution.
- Whether Joon files for FDA clearance to match the “digital therapeutic” language it already uses.
- A Form D or other SEC filing that would confirm the size of either reported funding round.
- How far the clinical strategy team, coaching and therapist referral additions push Joon from an app into a licensed care provider.
In their words
“There is often a misalignment with what kids want to do (explore the world and have fun) and the boring but important things (homework, routines, chores) that help them become more independent and responsible.”
Kevin Bunarjo, co-founder, Authority Magazine, 2022 · Interview
“Be optimistic. Obviously you need to be realistic about your current situation, so that you don’t run out of money or get into legal trouble. However, the only way you can change the world is if you actually believe you can.”
Kevin Bunarjo, co-founder, Authority Magazine, 2022 · Interview
“The only way you really learn how to do something is to do it. It’s not as risky as it seems.”
Isaac Eaves, co-founder and CEO, Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, 2022 · Interview
“My kids were rushing to get their chores and homeschool work done, and I didn’t even have to remind them!”
Jenn Warren, parent reviewer, Dinkum Tribe, 2025 · Independent review
“As a therapist, reward systems and gamification are significantly helpful for children with ADHD and adults with ADHD, whether they have been given a formal diagnosis or not.”
Lena Suarez-Angelino, LCSW, ChoosingTherapy.com, 2025 · Independent review
“The whole trope of ‘my kids are rushing around to complete their quests’ only fits for my neurotypical child.”
Parent, r/ADHDparenting, 2025 · User comment
“It takes a village to raise a family and we’re here to help you build yours.”
Joon Health website, 2025 · Company-stated
Related companies
Sources
- YC dataJoon Health company page and founder bios
- PortfolioJoon Health portfolio profile
- CompanyJoon Health homepage
- CompanyOur Research Studies
- InterviewHealth Tech: Kevin Bunarjo Of Joon App On How Their Technology Can Make An Important Impact On Our Overall Wellness
- IndependentJoon App Review 2026
- IndependentJoon’s Behavior Improvement Tools for Kids with Mental and Behavioral Disorder
- IndependentBrick by Brick: Building Chattanooga’s Startup Scene
- IndependentJoon App Review: ADHD Family To-Do & Chores
- User commentDoes Joon work for anyone?
- User commentJoon App?
- CompanyJoon: Kids ADHD Chore Tracker, app listing
- Public recordEDGAR company search for companies named “Joon,” “Joon Health” and “Joon App” with Form D filings
- Public recordFDA, NIH, NSF, ClinicalTrials.gov and Form D enrichment record for Joon Health
Profile researched and written by Healthcare Discovery. Last updated September 29, 2026.
