August 19, 2024 | Read Online

🦄 Unicorner Startup of the Week:

Synaptrix Labs

✍️ Notes from the Editors

Continuing last week’s conversation on health tech, we move to a hot topic in the medical world: brain-computer interfaces. Synaptrix wants to use AI to bring non-invasive brain interfaces to those who need it most.

In addition, we’d like to welcome our new contributor Kanay to the Unicorner team! He hopes you enjoy this week’s run-down on Synaptrix.

- Ethan and Arek 🦄

AI-powered non-invasive brain-computer interfaces

Synaptrix Labs is solving pain points experienced by people with neuromuscular disorders through non-invasive devices and AI. Its primary offering is Neuralis, an external headset that utilizes electroencephalogram waves from brain lobes in the visual cortex region of the brain to improve mobility for individuals with severe neuromuscular conditions. By combining this with cloud infrastructure, Synaptrix Labs hopes to convert intentions into actions, such as wheelchair movement. Neuralis is powered by Saffron-1, a proprietary AI model for EEG signal detection and processing pipeline that extracts data from EEG waves and translates them into physical actions. As Synaptrix runs clinical trials to gain FDA approval, it’s also developing another physical product that converts thought to speech. Synaptrix intends to bridge the gap between human-technology interaction.

🔗 Check it out: synaptrix-labs.com

💰 Business Model

Once gaining FDA approval, Synaptrix Lab’s initial business model will be selling medical devices to consumers directly, which would be reimbursed by insurance companies. Once the main hardware is sold, it has special and custom components that must be replaced every couple of months, including certain nodes and sensors and a custom battery, which consumers can pay for out of pocket or through insurance. In addition, it intends to roll out other products and make Saffron-1 available to other BCI manufacturers.

📈 Traction and Fundraising

Raised pre-seed from Underdog Labs and several family offices
Won several awards/grants such as the UC Berkeley Big Ideas Grant and the Rehabilitation Engineering and Research Center on Augmentative and Alternative Communication Award, and was a finalist for the Resna Design Grant
Approved clinical trial in October 2024
LOIs signed by major rehab centers nationwide
Planning on raising a $5 million seed round next summer

👫 Founders

Aryan Govil, Co-Founder, Neuroscience
Eric Yao, Co-Founder, Technology and Strategy
Raghav Katoch, Co-Founder, Hardware
Ojas Karnavat, Co-Founder, Software

📖 Founder Story

The first two co-founders, Govil and Yao, met at NYU. Govil had a long-standing interest in neuroscience and medicine after seeing personal issues raised by family members. He came to NYU and became the youngest member of the Alzheimer research lab at NYU Langone Health at 18. Upon seeing the issue with current products on the market helping those with physical disabilities and impairments, he believed he could build a better product.

Yao started at NYU as a Math and Data Science undergraduate, initially working in finance and quantitative research. Given that finance and neuroscience are both time-series data sets, he quickly picked up neuroscience and joined Govil to create Synaptrix Labs.

Katoch came to NYU to pursue his Master’s in Biomedical Engineering after working for the Indian government as part of the Indian Council of Medical Research. There, he worked on several hardware applications in the biomedical field. While pursuing his Master’s at NYU, he worked in NYU Labs on wearable technologies in the biomedical space before joining Govil and Yao.

Karnavat went to UC Berkeley to study Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He gained extensive experience in different SWE and research roles before focusing on neurotechnology and AI and developing different machine-learning models in both neuroscience and speech.

💼 Opportunities

The team is actively looking for talent to help with ongoing research. If this sounds like a role you’d be interested in, reply to this email!

🔮 Our Analysis

Since the early 1900s, there has been a fascination with brain control with the invention of the EEG, or electroencephalography, an electrogram that measures spontaneous brain waves. With the advent of AI and the new potential of computing powers, brain-computer interfaces, or BCIs, are now able to exist. There is a growing opportunity for external technological devices to control and boost productivity and livelihood. One example is Elon Musk’s Neuralink, which is making the biggest headlines. At the same time, other companies are building different solutions by first building more accessibility solutions for people with neuromuscular conditions, and then implementing that for the general population. There has been intensive investment from different governments into different labs and projects to create BCIs for different purposes, and now private firms are entering too. The BCI market is expected to grow from $1.74 billion to $6.2 billion by 2030, and that is with limited knowledge of the potential of these devices.

In addition, while Neurolink might get the most brand awareness, there is a consensus among both scientists and consumers that external, non-invasive devices will lead the wave and what will work for initial patients. With many concerns being brought against invasive technology, from side effects to cybersecurity, external devices are generally regarded as the safest way to approach BCIs. Despite this, there is significant traction from potential competitors in the invasive and external spaces, including Neuralink, several laboratories, Synchron, and other publicly and privately funded projects.

What makes Synaptrix Labs different is its approach, which has drastically reduced its approval times and allows it to move faster with less doubt from consumers. By offering an external device with no invasive needs, the company has gotten FDA approval for its clinical trial faster than many invasive BCI studies, meaning accelerated product approval. Also, while other projects have only now begun to retroactively include AI into its solutions, Synaptrix has built up its AI capabilities in both hardware and software. By integrating its own AI model into its product, making it available, and continuously improving on it through its in-house AI research lab Generative Neuroscience, Synaptrix has flexibility in its industry niche as it progresses ahead. It intends to roll out its first products in the latter half of 2025, and with significant momentum from its first venture round and the several awards and grants it has received, Synaptrix Labs can be the next unicorn by disrupting everyday devices.