BuddyRise, a Ghent-based startup with offices in San Francisco, is launching Buddy: an AI health companion that tracks symptoms, identifies triggers and guides daily habits for people living with auto-immune conditions. The platform was co-founded by MS patient and former UN AI expert Charline d'Oultremont, neuroscientist Céleste Cockmartin and Ben De Smet, co-founder of Y Combinator-backed interview scale-up Conveo.
Charline d'Oultremont was working for the United Nations when her body suddenly stopped. The diagnosis was devastating: progressive MS. Doctors told her to prepare for a life in a wheelchair. What followed was three years of relentless lifestyle tracking: photos of every meal, notes on every symptom, protocols marked in fluorescent highlighter. Slowly, progress became visible. Today, Charline has been in remission for three years.
"I spent three years tracking almost every variable in my life to understand my own disease. Eventually I reached remission, but I had to figure it all out entirely on my own. Most people don't have the time, energy or knowledge to do that," says Charline d'Oultremont, CEO and co-founder of BuddyRise. "BuddyRise wants to give every auto-immune patient the daily lifestyle support that simply isn't there today."
Addressing a Global Health Challenge
Auto-immune diseases affect around 10% of the global population; roughly 800 million people. MS, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease and psoriasis all fall into the same category, where the immune system turns against the body. 80% of all auto-immune patients worldwide are women, yet research has historically relied on male subjects and medication has been calibrated for male bodies. Hormonal cycles, menstruation and the postpartum period are rarely factored in, despite their measurable impact on disease progression.
Buddy for doctors and patients
That observation is where BuddyRise began. Buddy, the AI companion at the heart of the app, talks to patients every day via voice or text and remembers everything they share: symptoms, sleep, meals, mood and small wins. With every conversation, the companion builds a personal profile that gets smarter over time, recognising patterns, mapping triggers and suggesting small, actionable steps patients can take between appointments. Patients see their doctor for an average of 30 minutes a year. BuddyRise fills in the rest.
The platform is clinically grounded and tailored to each condition and each body. For an MS patient like Charline, sunlight is a form of medicine. For a lupus patient, that same sunlight is a trigger. A patient in a postpartum period receives an adapted plan, given that the postpartum phase carries heightened risk for many auto-immune conditions. Patients can export their full data history to share with their doctor, giving a clinician a complete picture of symptoms, triggers and recovery patterns in minutes.