Dive Brief:
- CoMind has raised $102.5 million to develop a non-invasive brain monitoring device, the company said Monday.
- Using similar technology to Lidar found in self-driving cars, CoMind has designed a product for measuring parameters including brain blood flow and oxygenation in real time at the bedside, according to the company’s website.
- CoMind is enrolling patients in an early feasibility trial and has posted data in healthy volunteers. The company told the Financial Times that it is aiming to start selling its device in 2027.
Dive Insight:
Measurements such as cerebral blood flow, brain tissue oxygen saturation and intracranial pressure can provide insights into a patient’s neurological health. The insights can inform the treatment of conditions such as traumatic brain injury and stroke.
Companies have developed a range of technologies to capture the data, but the existing options have limitations that could create opportunities for new devices. Physicians use bolts or external ventricular drains to measure intracranial pressure. Bolts and drains require physicians to drill a hole in the patient’s skull. Imaging can measure blood flow and oxygen but not continuously at the bedside.
CoMind said existing non-invasive options are inaccurate and can compromise treatment decisions.
Seeking to address those limitations, CoMind has developed a device that features a small, adhesive sensor that is placed on the patient’s forehead. The device captures light that is reflected as a laser passes through the brain. CoMind combines the reflected light with light from a reference arm, resulting in data that the company plans to use to measure a range of neurophysiological parameters.
The funding round positions CoMind to advance the device toward regulatory approval. Plural led the round with support from existing investors Angelini Ventures, LocalGlobe, Octopus Ventures, Crane, Backed VC and Entrepreneurs First.
CoMind founder James Dacombe received $100,000 in 2022 from the Thiel Fellowship, a program that the tech billionaire Peter Thiel set up to help young people start companies instead of attending college. Then aged 21, Dacombe had already founded CoMind and begun developing non-invasive neuroimaging tools.
