Neurotrack Secures $21 Million in Series C Funding to Advance Its Digital Memory Health Platform for Alzheimer's Prediction

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) learned from foreign media reports that innovative digital health company Neurotrack announced on June 11 the completion of a $21 million Series C financing round. The round was led by existing investor Khosla Ventures, with participation from new strategic investors Dai-ichi Life and Sompo Holdings, as well as existing investors Sozo Ventures, Rethink Impact, and AME Cloud Ventures.

Neurotrack will leverage this funding to advance its memory health program, aiming to transform how people manage cognitive health, while continuing to expand and forge partnerships in the global market.

To date, Neurotrack has raised over $50 million in total funding, including grants of more than $3.5 million from the National Institutes of Health and $3.3 million from the National Institute on Aging.

Neurotrack is headquartered in Redwood City, California. It was co-founded in 2012 by CEO Elli Kaplan, neuroscientists and researchers Dr. Stuart Zola and Dr. Elizabeth Buffalo, and Cecelia Manzanares. The company is dedicated to building a future digital platform for memory health, enabling individuals to directly use digital tools and technologies to assess, preserve, and improve their memory health. Neurotrack has published its trial data in five academic journals, authored one academic review paper, and been recognized as a top health company.

Neurotrack’s memory health platform is designed to combat Alzheimer’s disease. It is estimated that approximately 50 million people worldwide currently live with Alzheimer’s, a figure projected to exceed 130 million by 2050. Neurotrack’s cognitive health tools will benefit millions of people around the globe.

Elli Kaplan, Co-founder and CEO of Neurotrack, stated, “As the global Alzheimer’s crisis intensifies, private sector entities are seeking collaborations with governments and non-profit organizations to address this challenge. For instance, traditional Japanese insurance companies are developing new solutions that incorporate Neurotrack’s products to enhance memory health among the Japanese population. We aim to replicate such innovative partnerships in other markets, working alongside traditional insurers to tackle the dementia crisis and expand into new markets. Some traditional insurance companies are not only our clients but also investors in our company.”

Last year, Neurotrack partnered with Dai-ichi Life, Japan’s second-largest life insurer, to offer its new product as part of an Alzheimer’s disease insurance package to Dai-ichi Life’s customers. In the first half of 2019, SOMPO and Neurotrack conducted a 16-week pilot program on memory health, in which more than 550 SOMPO employees participated. Neurotrack and SOMPO are now working to deepen and expand their collaboration.

By 2025, the number of dementia patients in Japan is projected to reach 13 million. Through their partnership with Neurotrack, Dai-ichi Life and Sompo Holdings have provided tools for assessing and managing cognitive health to millions of people in Japan, committing to reducing the prevalence of dementia.

Kaplan stated, “Neurotrack’s fully integrated memory health platform enables users to assess their memory status, reduce the risk of future decline, and achieve better monitoring and management. By combining platform tools with in-depth analytics, we further target users to provide personalized services and develop precise medical solutions. Just as dieters track their weight loss progress using a scale, Neurotrack manages dementia risk by providing memory health assessment scales and plans.”

Alzheimer’s disease is rapidly becoming the greatest medical challenge of our time, and cognitive health tools can mitigate its impact on communities worldwide. Neurotrack will seek additional partners in international markets, including the United States and China, to address the Alzheimer’s crisis. China currently has the largest number of dementia patients globally.

Samir Kaul, Founding Partner at Khosla Ventures, stated, “Society’s current approach to addressing Alzheimer’s disease is outdated. The majority of adults aged 65 and older worldwide do not undergo regular cognitive assessments. In the absence of a cure or vaccine, the rising prevalence of Alzheimer’s poses a threat globally. To curb the accelerating spread of the disease, we must begin managing cognitive health conveniently and effectively from an early stage in life. We believe that Neurotrack’s platform can achieve this goal on a global scale.”

Preliminary clinical studies of the Neurotrack Memory Health Platform, released in 2018, showed that after one year of platform use, participants’ average scores on the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) increased by 6%, accompanied by improvements in cognitive functions such as immediate memory, language, and delayed memory.

Neurotrack’s Memory Health Platform, built on 30 years of scientific research, is the first fully integrated, clinically validated platform for memory health assessment and management. Leveraging the company’s proprietary Imprint cognitive assessment technology, the platform can predict an individual’s risk of progressing from healthy cognition to mild cognitive impairment (MCI), or from MCI to Alzheimer’s disease. This technology demonstrates a prediction accuracy of 89% over three years and 100% accuracy over six years.

Khosla Ventures is a venture capital firm founded in 2004 by Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems. The company invests across all stages of enterprise development. In addition to traditional venture capital sectors such as the internet, computing, mobile, and silicon technologies, Khosla Ventures also focuses on investments in the environmental sector.

Dai-ichi Life, a private life insurance company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, was established on September 15, 1902. The company was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on April 1, 2010. It has approximately 67,000 employees and 1,345 sales offices across Japan. Dai-ichi Life also conducts overseas life insurance business in Vietnam, Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, and India, and maintains offices in New York, London, Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai.

As of March 31, 2014, Dai-ichi Life’s total assets amounted to JPY 37.7 trillion (USD 366.3 billion).

Sompo Holdings was established in 2010 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. The company primarily operates domestic property insurance, life insurance, health insurance, and overseas insurance businesses, and also engages in asset management and other operations.

Rethink Impact is a venture capital firm. The company places particular emphasis on supporting businesses that appoint women to management roles and leverage technology to generate broad, positive impact, with a commitment to fostering a more inclusive economic system. Rethink Impact primarily focuses on the sectors of health, education, sustainability, and financial services, investing in companies at the seed and early stages.

AME Cloud Ventures is a venture capital fund led by Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang. The firm invests in companies from the seed to late stages, with a commitment to building data-driven infrastructure and value chains. AME Cloud Ventures primarily focuses on data technology companies in the areas of infrastructure, applications, mobile devices, and sensors.

(Compiled by Tang Lulu)