Backed by Peak XV and Jungle, Neurowyzr puts the focus on brain health | TechCrunch

The speed of dementia is expected to double every 20 years, however many instruments for early detection, like MRI scans, are tough for sufferers to entry. Neurowyzr desires to assist extra individuals get mind healthcare via instruments like its on-line Digital Mind Perform Display screen (DBFS). The startup, which has workplaces in Singapore and India, introduced immediately it has raised $2.1 million in seed funding. The oversubscribed spherical was led by Jungle Ventures and Peak XV’s (previously Sequoia India and Southeast Asia) Surge program, with participation from angel traders.

Neurowyzr has now raised $3.3 million because it was based in 2019 by Nav Vij and Pang Sze Yunn. It’s going to take part in 2023 Medtech Innovator Asia Pacific, the world’s largest medtech accelerator program.

Vij, Neurowyzr’s chief digital neuroscientist, grew to become concerned with early mind decline and associated therapies whereas finding out for his neuroscience diploma on the College of Melbourne. One in all his members of the family was recognized with a neurodegenerative illness at a younger age, which motivated Vij to take away obstacles to mind healthcare. Pang, who has labored on pioneering well being initiatives, together with Asia’s first coronary heart failure monitoring venture, obtained concerned with mind healthcare as a result of she noticed the influence mind situations can have on members of the family, particularly ladies caregivers.

Pang informed TechCrunch that a number of work in neurology at the moment focuses on remedy for severe mind situations. However mind decline can begin 20 to 40 years earlier than a situation like dementia, psychological sickness or stroke emerges. Consequently, early detection is essential.

Neurowyzr co-founders Pang Sze Yunn (CEO) and Nav Vij (chief digital neuroscientist). Picture Credit: Neurowyzr

Conventional mind assessments like pen-and-paper assessments will be affected by tester bias, whereas MRI and CT scans are costly and inaccessible to many sufferers. Neurowyzr desires to deal with the hole with its digital neuroscience evaluation software, the Digital Mind Perform Display screen (DBFS). Meant to be quicker and less expensive than conventional cognitive testing, DBFS is at the moment utilized by healthcare organizations like Parkway Shenton, SATA Commhealth, Farrer Park Hospital, MHC Medical Centre (Amara) and O’Pleasure in Singapore. It has additionally accomplished a pilot with a big non-public hospital chain in India and is registered with the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration, Singapore Well being Sciences Authority and Australia Therapeutic Items Administration.

Pang mentioned the DBFS will be accomplished in 15 to twenty minutes. It assesses a affected person’s speedy reminiscence, working reminiscence, consideration and govt mind perform via a sequence of gamified neuroscience puzzles. For instance, one puzzle has dots with a quantity on every scattered throughout the display, and asks the customers to attach them so as. One other exhibits a sequence of numbers that customers must memorize after which write so as. DBFS is hosted on-line, so sufferers can entry it via an internet browser hyperlink at house, although it was designed for major care settings.

Neurowyzr’s new funding will likely be used on product improvement and regional growth in Southeast Asia and India. The startup is at the moment working with tutorial organizations just like the NTU Lee Kong Chian Faculty Medication’s Dementia Analysis Centre to develop extra digital mind well being options, with the purpose of reducing undetected circumstances of early mind decline.

In an announcement, Jungle Ventures healthcare accomplice Seemant Jauhari mentioned, “Projected numbers inform a stark story for Asia: over the subsequent twenty years, greater than 66 million people may face dementia, whereas delicate cognitive impairment may have an effect on over 400 million. Neurowyzr is a direct response to this problem. By assessing mind and psychological well being promptly, we’re constructing a proactive protection towards potential epidemic.”