BrainCheck, the company behind a platform that helps assess cognitive impairment, has raised $ 10 million in Series B funding.
The round was led by Next Coast Ventures and S3 Ventures, including Nueterra Capital, Tensility Ventures and True Wealth Ventures. BrainCheck also secured strategic investments from UPMC Enterprises and SelectQuote.
BrainCheck said the latest round of funding brings total revenue to $ 20 million.
WHAT IT DOES
The company makes software that can be used on iPhones, iPads, or desktop computers to assess cognitive decline and screen for diseases like Alzheimer’s or other types of dementia. The tool can also provide a cognitive care plan based on the results.
BrainCheck presents its platform as an easy-to-use alternative to pen and paper cognitive health assessments that enables primary care practices to proactively screen for dementia in elderly patients.
“We are at the forefront of improving access to cognitive assessment and care,” said Yael Katz, PhD, co-founder and CEO of BrainCheck in a statement.
“Treatment and intervention go hand in hand with early diagnosis. These funds will allow us to accelerate the rollout of our platform and work with clinicians to help more patients live better and safer lives, reduce nurse frustration, and save trillions of dollars in healthcare systems. I believe BrainCheck can help develop cognitive care in the way that cancer treatment has done since the 1970s, when chemotherapy was one size fits all. “
MARKET SNAPSHOT
BrainCheck was founded in 2014 and raised $ 3 million in 2016 initially focused on screening for concussions in athletes with an aim to move into senior care.
The enterprise It raised $ 1.5 million in 2017 and secured a $ 8 million Series A round in 2019.
Other companies that use technology to diagnose potential cognitive problems are Aural Analytics, which raised $ 4.3 million seed funding for voice-based screening in 2019; and Altoida, which grossed $ 6.3 million in Series A in 2019 for its digital platform that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to predict Alzheimer’s disease.
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal in September is Apple too looking for digital biomarkers to detect early-stage cognitive decline and depression.Early 2021, Biogen announced a multi-year study with the technology giant to find digital biomarkers to monitor long-term cognitive performance and detect early signs of mild cognitive impairment.
A previous feasibility study from Apple, Eli Lilly, and Evidation Health found that sensors on devices like iPhones, Apple Watches, iPads, and Beddit sleep monitors could collect enough data to detect mild cognitive impairments or Alzheimer’s disease.
