Gelderland, the Netherlands-based MindAffect, a neuroscience healthtech company, announced on Monday, that it has secured €1.1M in a Series A funding round.
The latest funding round was backed by existing and new investors, including Barco Limpo, Wasteland Investments, and the NLC Health Impact Fund, alongside private investors.
Over 1.6 Billion people encounter issues with diagnostic tests that need active responses.
This is especially true for hearing tests, which require individuals to respond to sounds.
It can be challenging and inaccurate for those who cannot communicate effectively, such as infants, young children, and adults with disabilities.
These individuals would need to be asleep or under anaesthesia to measure their hearing without their active participation.
And here’s where MindAffect’s technology addresses these challenges by utilising a headband—Aurora—equipped with electrodes that capture the brain’s automatic response to sound, bypassing the need for any verbal or physical feedback from the patient.
“Hearing loss profoundly impacts every facet of life, from straining everyday communications to increasing the risk of social isolation and cognitive decline. For children, this means risks of poor educational and social development; for the elderly, increased isolation and a greater risk of early dementia; and the disabled, fewer opportunities for social inclusion”, Jennifer Goodall, CEO of MindAffect.
MindAffect: Developing future’s hearing & vision diagnostic system
Founded as a spin-off of Radboud University’s Donders Institute, MindAffect under Professor Peter Desain and his team achieved advancements in Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technology.
Leveraging this advanced BCI technology along with artificial intelligence, the Dutch company has developed patented solutions that significantly enhance diagnostic processes, especially in auditory and visual assessments.
How does it work?
The Aurora hearing diagnostic system is fast, accurate, comfortable, and easy to use, claims the company.
The patient is fitted with an 8-channel headband, listens to soft chirps, and watches a silent video (of their choice) for <10 minutes.
The full audiometric threshold results are produced automatically at the end of the test.
The Aurora combines air and bone conduction audiometric threshold tests for a full audiometric diagnostic test.
As the company anticipates launching the Aurora next year, MindAffect is also expanding its technology’s application into other domains.
The Dutch company is developing a combined hearing and vision test for young children and a glaucoma monitoring test for elderly patients, utilising the same advanced brain-computer interface technology.
The investor
The NLC Health Impact Fund is established to drive investments in early-stage innovations in healthcare.
The fund will deploy capital towards ventures of varied maturity levels, providing initial and follow-on funding.
NLC is currently fundraising for the 2nd close of the Health Impact fund. Find more information here.
“We are excited to continue to support MindAffect as they prepare to launch Aurora. Their ability to provide effective, non-invasive hearing diagnostics can drastically reduce the global burden of untreated hearing loss, which affects millions of lives globally. As such, we are looking forward to working with the MindAffect team in the coming years as we aim to advance health for all” says Lars Olthof, Investment Manager at NLC.
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