BrainNow Medical Completes Tens of Millions RMB Series A Funding to Unlock Intelligent Diagnosis for Brain Disorders

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that BrainNow has announced the completion of its tens-of-millions-yuan Series A financing round. The round was led by Shenzhen Xiantong Capital, with continued participation from Ziniu Fund, the company’s angel investor. Leveraging its strong medical expertise, internationally leading algorithms, and a global team integrating medicine and engineering, BrainNow provides mature solutions for the precise analysis and diagnosis of brain imaging-related diseases, emerging as a breakthrough high-growth enterprise in this field.

Dr. He Nanxing, Managing Partner at Xiantong Capital, stated: “BrainNow is an AI-powered diagnostic platform for central nervous system disorders that provides objective and reproducible evidence to support clinical diagnosis, aligning with the principles of evidence-based medicine. It is an innovative, multi-stakeholder solution that delivers mutual benefits to both patients and the healthcare system. Currently, it holds a leading position in the niche sector of healthcare plus artificial intelligence in China.”

In the field of neuropsychiatric disorders, making scientific and accurate clinical diagnoses has become a challenging issue for many clinicians. Due to the high complexity of brain disease classification and clinical subtyping, current clinical diagnosis still relies heavily on patients’ clinical manifestations and physicians’ experience, resulting in significantly low diagnostic accuracy.

Although many imaging techniques have been widely used in the examination of brain diseases, the extraction of key information from structural MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scans in traditional clinical diagnosis still relies on physicians’ subjective visual assessment of two-dimensional images and their professional expertise, with no guarantee of reproducibility. Misdiagnosis or missed diagnosis of brain disorders often leads to delayed or mismatched treatment plans, causing patients unnecessary suffering and financial burden.

Drawing on over a decade of experience in integrating medicine and engineering, the founding team of BrainNow has gained a profound understanding of the severity of this issue. Leveraging their innovative research achievements in brain image segmentation, functional MRI analysis, diffusion imaging analysis, and quantitative assessment of brain lesions, and driven by the needs of clinical disease diagnosis, they developed AccuBrain, a quantitative brain imaging analysis tool. This tool enables rapid, accurate, and reliable measurement of the three-dimensional volumes of hundreds of major brain structures and lesions.

BrainNow has partnered with more than 50 Grade-A tertiary hospitals, published over 40 high-quality research papers in SCI-indexed journals and at top international conferences, and serves as the exclusive imaging technology support unit for the key special project “Research on Novel Intervention Methods for the Pre-dementia Stage of Alzheimer’s Disease” under the National Key R&D Program for Prevention and Control of Major Chronic Non-communicable Diseases during the 13th Five-Year Plan period.

According to the company’s founder: After its introduction into medical institutions, the AccuBrain precision brain imaging analysis system can meet the diverse needs of various relevant departments, including neurology, neurosurgery, psychiatry, radiology, geriatrics, and health examination centers. By leveraging quantitative analysis, the system enables early diagnosis and assessment of diseases. It is user-friendly, significantly improves diagnostic accuracy, alleviates the burden on both physicians and patients, and provides an efficient tool for the implementation of tiered diagnosis and treatment in China. Currently, the company is actively engaged in scientific research collaborations and commercial deployment in Hong Kong, the United States, Europe, Australia, and other regions.

BrainNow was established in Hong Kong in 2015 by a team of expert professors from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Unlike many traditional artificial intelligence companies, the BrainNow team possesses an inherent medical DNA. In addition to its founding members’ interdisciplinary backgrounds in both clinical practice and engineering, BrainNow receives strong academic and international collaborative support from Professor Lawrence Ka Sing Wong’s predecessor as Head of the Division of Neurology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Professor Vincent Mok Chung-tong, who serves as Chief Medical Advisor, Hong Kong Representative of the World Federation of Neurology, and Chair of the Scientific Committee of the Asia Pacific Stroke Conference. Furthermore, Professor Lawrence Ka Sing Wong, former Head of the Division of Neurology at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Secretary-General of the World Stroke Organization, Chair of the International Stroke Conference Committee, and recipient of the First Prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, is also deeply involved in supporting BrainNow’s development.

Currently, BrainNow has established overseas R&D centers in Hong Kong and Europe, and forged partnerships with more than 100 hospitals at various levels. Its independently developed, professional-grade precision imaging AI-assisted diagnostic tool, the AccuBrain Neurology Cloud Platform for Auxiliary Diagnosis, has been successfully implemented. Following this round of financing, BrainNow will actively advance the R&D and commercial deployment of its next-generation products.

In the future, BrainNow will continue to strive to be the leader in brain imaging technology for the global Chinese community and contribute to addressing major health challenges brought about by an aging society in China.

Ms. Zhang Quanling, Founding Partner of Ziniu Fund, which invested in BrainNow’s angel round and continued to participate in this round, stated: “Currently, most artificial intelligence companies are seeking application scenarios for AI. Dr. Shi Lin’s team started directly from commercial implementation scenarios and the actual needs of clinical departments, building a complete medical value chain spanning screening, assisted diagnosis, and prognostic rehabilitation. Supported by robust research evidence and endorsed by the industry, it is one of the few startups in the niche sector of AI+medical imaging that can truly achieve rapid commercialization.”