Israeli Startup NeuraLight Raises $25M For Its AI Neurological Platform

Israeli health-tech startup NeuraLight, announced the completion of a $25 million Series A funding round to strengthen the accuracy of neurological evaluation through its AI-based, eye-tracking platform with upgraded neurological clinical trials and therapeutics. 

The round was led by investment firm Kock Disruptive Technologies, alongside participation from Breyer Capital, Samsung, NEXT, VSC Ventures, and Viz.ai co-founders Chris Mansi and David Golan, among others. 

This latest capital brings NeuraLight’s total funding to $30.5 million. 

Neurological evaluation today is highly subjective and often yields a 30 percent chance of misdiagnosis for diseases like Parkinson’s. Without objective data, neurological therapeutics have only attained a 6 percent approval rate––less than 50 percent of the approval rate for non-neurological drugs.  

“The unmet need in neurology of establishing objective and sensitive biomarkers is immense. NeuraLight’s approach holds real promise to address this need,” said Thomas Südhof, MD, Nobel laureate, and professor of molecular and cellular physiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and serves on NeuraLight’s Scientific Advisory Board.

Launched in late 2021, NeuraLight leverages computer vision and deep learning algorithms to extract all relevant oculometric (movement and conditions of the eye) markers from facial videos recorded with a webcam or smartphone. These digital markers provide an accurate snapshot of a person’s neurological status, which enables pharmaceutical companies to accurately and sensitively measure disease progression, reduce misdiagnosis, and fine-tune precision care for neurology. NeuraLight’s technology monitors those with Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis, and ALS, among other neurological disorders.

“After watching my grandfather’s battle with Alzheimer’s, I began studying these diseases in-depth, and it soon became clear to me that not only are neurological diseases very hard to understand but that cures for these diseases are extremely hard to discover because these diseases lack robust objective and sensitive measures. That’s why we founded NeuraLight, to measure neurological disorders accurately and objectively, and bring precision medicine to neurology,“ said Dr. Micha Breakstone, co-founder and CEO of NeuraLight. Breakstone is a serial entrepreneur who exited with his previous company Chorus.ai for $575m, and partnered with award-winning mathematician and repeat entrepreneur Edmund Ben-Ami who serves as CTO, to found NeuraLight in 2021. “Today, we are honored that so many notable investors and experts in neurology see the value in our technology, and we’re excited to start implementing this technology in clinical trials.” 

“NeuraLight’s precise friction-reducing breakthrough to create digital biomarkers can transform the field of neurology – from early detection to drug discovery,” said Eli Groner, MD at Koch Disruptive Technologies. “We are very excited about the implications for humanity.”