Cognitive health assessment startup Neurotrack raises $21M Series C


Cognitive health assessment startup Neurotrack raises $21M Series C

Digital health startup Neurotrack raised a $21 million Series C financing round as it looks to expand the reach of its cognitive assessment and training tools globally.

The Redwood City-based startup was founded in 2012 and raised more than $50 million through investors and research grants. The company’s platform consists of a digital assessment to measure memory health and an associated program meant to drive better healthy behaviors and training exercises as a way to improve cognitive health.

“One can now feel empowered to test for potential memory decline given that Neurotrack’s Memory Health Program, can help stave off cognitive decline,” Neurotrack CEO Elli Kaplan said in a statement.

“Just as when you go on a diet, you use a scale to provide evidence that you’re losing weight. Neurotrack now has the equivalent of both a scale to measure and the Memory Health Program for cognitive health. This is a game-changer for dementia risk.”

The most recent funding round is being led by existing Neurotrack investor Khosla Ventures and includes strategic investors from two major Japanese insurers: Dai-ichi Life and SOMPO Holdings.

Neurotrack has identified Japan as a major potential growth market for the company in light of the country’s rapidly aging population and the global rise of Alzheimer’s disease.

According to the nonprofit Alzheimer’s Disease International, around 50 million people are living with dementia currently and the number is expected to more than double to 130 million cases by 2050.

While Neurotrack’s product is not FDA approved as a diagnostic or treatment for cognitive decline, the company leans on research that has indicated the correlation between better habits in diet, sleep, exercise and sleep management.

A small year-long single-arm pilot study published in JMIR Aging found that Neurotrack program was able to improve cognitive function, depression, and anxiety levels in a older adults experiencing subjective cognitive decline.

The investments from the two Japanese insurers builds on previously established collaborations with Neurotrack to offer the startup’s technology to plan beneficiaries.

Last year, Neurotrack worked with Dai-ichi Life to offer cognitive health products as part of the company’s dementia insurance which pays out when policyholders are diagnosed with the condition. Neurotrack has also launched a program with SOMPO earlier this year which piloted the company’s product’s with SOMPO’s employees.

“These partnerships are innovative models that we hope to replicate in other markets, enabling traditional insurance companies to create new markets while helping to address the Alzheimer’s crisis. And now they’re also investing in our company, so these companies have two ways of doing well by doing good,” Kaplan said.

Photo credit: nambitomo, Getty Images


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