Belfast-based MedTech company BrainWaveBank has raised £1m to develop and commercialise new "Fitbit for the brain" wearable tech.
Gathering fitness data today has never been easier, with smartphones recording your steps and wearable devices now able to keep track of everything from your pulse to your sleep cycle. Belfast-based MedTech firm BrainWaveBank now plans to do the same kind of data collection for your brain to help people keep on top of their brain health and see the early warning signs of cognitive disorders.
BrainWaveBank has made waves in the medical technology field in recent years by applying machine learning techniques to make sense of brain activity data from an electroencephalogram (EEG). The company has developed a wearable headset that measures activity in the brain in a non-invasive manner, and which pairs with a smartphone to record and analyse the data.
The firm has just announced that it's secured over £1m in a funding round led by Par Equity, British Business Investments, the Angel CoFund, and TechStart Ventures. The firm has secured several rounds of funding so far, and this latest round brings it to a total of over £3.7m in funding, including around £2m in grants from Invest NI and Innovate UK to support ongoing R&D.
BrainWaveBank CEO Ronan Cunningham has described the platform the firm is developing as a kind of "Fitbit for the brain" that will record data throughout the day that could help with the early detection of brain disorders and assessment of treatments. Commenting on the new funding, Cunningham said:
"This investment will enable us to continue to develop and commercialise our cutting-edge technology that addresses a major unmet need in the development of novel therapies that can significantly reduce costs of care and improve patient outcomes for millions of people worldwide."
Source: Irish Times, via Silicon Republic
