Neurotrack raises $21 million
Neurotrack, the digital health California-based company on a mission to transform the measurement and management of cognition and memory loss, announced a $21 million Series C round led by existing investor Khosla Ventures, with new strategic investments from Dai-ichi Life and SOMPO Holdings, and participation from existing investors Sozo Ventures, Rethink Impact, and AME Cloud Partners.
With an estimated 50m people around the world living with Alzheimer’s today and more than 130m expected by 2050, Neurotrack claims to have identified a way to bring cognitive health tools to millions around the globe. The company’s Memory Health Program is an app-based, personalized digital therapy that supports behavioral change across multiple risk factors such as physical activity, nutrition, vascular health, and cognitive training, through on-demand health as well as coaching that can be accessed anywhere. It leverages the FINGER protocol (The Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability) – a multi-year study led by Neurotrack Scientific Advisory Board member Dr. Miia Kivipelto, which identified multi-domain behaviors in older adults can improve cognition – and “groundbreaking eye tracking technology” developed by Dr. Stuart Zola, at Emory Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and Neurotrack Co-founder, to both measure one’s cognition and manage it over time.
Last year, Neurotrack joined forces with Dai-ichi Life to make its products available to customers as part of its new dementia insurance product. And in the first part of 2019, SOMPO conducted a 16-week pilot with Neurotrack, where more than 550 of SOMPO’s employees took Neurotrack’s test and followed the Memory Health Program for four months.
“One can now feel empowered to test for potential memory decline given that Neurotrack’s Memory Health Program, can help stave off cognitive decline. This fully integrated platform enables users to assess the state of their memory, reduce future risk for decline, and monitor progress in order to take better control of one’s memory health. We combine these tools with deep analytics to further target and personalize, creating a very powerful precision medicine solution. 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.” – Neurotrack’s cofounder and CEO Elli Kaplan.
“We are excited about the partnership between Neurotrack and Dai-ichi Life, and our joint continued dedication to lowering the growth rate of dementia in Japan. We believe in the power of Neurotrack’s products which is why we are a customer and now an investor.” – Yasumasa Iwai, Executive Officer in Charge of Insurtech at Dai-ichi Life.
“As a society, we’re behind the curve in tackling the Alzheimer’s pandemic. A majority of adults age 65 and over worldwide do not receive cognitive assessments on a regular basis, and without a cure or vaccine on the horizon, we’re looking at a growth rate that will threaten communities around the world. Managing one’s cognitive health must be easier to do and begin earlier in life so that we can halt the disease’s growth rate. And we believe Neurotrack has developed a platform that can deliver this on a global scale.” – Samir Kaul, Founding General Partner at Khosla Ventures.
“Neurotrack has built an incredible integrative platform that is transforming our battle with Alzheimer’s. Elli’s two decades of experience in the private sector and in government are helping her scale this solution to the millions of people suffering from cognitive decline around the world. We couldn’t be more excited to continue to support Neurotrack, given both the financial opportunity and the impact they are already having on this critical disease.” – Jenny Abramson, Founder & Managing Partner of Rethink Impact.
