Paris, April 30, 2024 – neuroClues®, a French-Belgian medtech company specializing in the diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases, today announced the successful closing of a new €5 million funding round. The investment was led by White Fund and the European Commission’s EIC Accelerator program, with participation from existing investors Invest.BW and Wallonie Entreprendre and notable business angels, including Fiona du Monceau, former Chair of the Board at UCB, Artwall, and Olivier Legrain, CEO of IBA. The money will support neuroClues®, currently incubated at iPEPS-ICM, Paris Brain Institute’s innovation acceleration center, in its product development and expansion into European and North American markets.
With this latest funding round, neuroClues® has raised a total of €12 million, following a €4.7 million injection in 2021 and €2.5 million in grants from the European Commission’s EIC Accelerator. The company has also been selected to receive up to €9 million in additional capital through the EIC Fund and, in recognition of its innovative solutions, was awarded the HealthTech For Care Innovation Award in October 2023, presented in Paris by cycling legend Bernard Hinault.
Breakthrough eye tracking technology: portable, connected, no calibration needed
Based on over a century of research and three years of development, neuroClues®’s groundbreaking new eye-tracking technology promises to facilitate earlier diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases compared with current methods. The system includes a cutting-edge headset controlled by an intuitive interface, which is placed in front of the patient’s eyes to record up to 800 infrared images per eye every second as they follow a moving point on a screen. The compact and portable design of this analysis tool caters to the needs of both daily clinical practice and research.
As simple as the “follow my finger” test, the neuroClues® solution analyzes eye movements within minutes to identify precise, objective, quantifiable, and non-invasive biomarkers. These metrics can assist healthcare practitioners in diagnosing a range of neurological disorders, including Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and multiple sclerosis (MS), several years before the manifestation of clinical symptoms, sucvh as memory loss or tremors.
P3Lab was founded in July Neurodegenerative diseases pose a major global health challenge, as they are often misdiagnosed or diagnosed late, when neurological degradation is already advanced. This issue is particularly pressing given the increasing prevalence of these conditions. In the case of Parkinson’s disease, the number of affected patients is expected to double to 13 million by 2040, one in four patients is misdiagnosed and faces an average delay of 13 months before receiving an accurate diagnosis. By this time, sufferers have typically lost 65% of their dopamine-producing neurons. neuroClues® is addressing this problem by catering to a global market of 2.5 million physicians who rely on eye movement observation to assess their patients’ neurological status during clinical consultations.
Parkinson’s Disease: neuroClues® is at the core of the Iceberg study by the brain Institute
Since the fall of 2023, a subset of patients from the Iceberg scientific cohort has been benefiting from a prototype of the neuroClues® technology. The Iceberg study, led by Professors Marie Vidailhet and Stéphane Lehéricy at the Brain Institute within La Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, is a pioneering research project that aims to identify biomarkers for the early detection and monitoring of Parkinson’s disease progression. By incorporating neuroClues® into their study, the researchers have opened new avenues for investigating Parkinson’s disease, both in terms of diagnosis and long-term patient monitoring.
“Subtle alterations in eye movement parameters can precede the onset of gait and balance disorders, allowing for the early detection of brain circuit dysfunctions in Parkinson’s disease before symptoms appear,“ explained Professor Marie Vidailhet. “This early detection will enable the implementation of earlier care by strengthening the patient’s abilities. This can involve physical and sports training, monitoring, and management of risk factors: the patient becomes their own therapist!”
neuroClues® eyes expansion after a pivotal clinical milestone presented at the Society for Neuroscience.
At the annual conference of the Society for Neuroscience in October 2023, neuroClues® presented preliminary evidence of a test for the preclinical diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. The company has identified an ocular test, named Mask-Induced Inhibition, which has shown promising results in distinguishing a patient with Parkinson’s disease five years before their diagnosis was confirmed by imaging. While further studies are needed to validate this hypothesis, the findings are extremely encouraging and suggest that neuroClues®’ technology could play a significant role in the early detection of Parkinson’s disease.
With fresh investment secured, the founders of neuroClues® are now focused on expanding their presence in Europe and North America. To achieve this goal, the company plans to submit applications to obtain FDA approval in the United States in 2024 and CE marking in Europe in 2025. Initially, neuroClues® will be marketed to neurologists and neuro-ophthalmologists, targeting the specialized healthcare professionals who are most likely to benefit from this innovative technology.
Looking further ahead, neuroClues® has set an ambitious target of assisting over 10 million patients worldwide by 2032. To reach this goal, the company aims to make its technology accessible to general practitioners and vision professionals for screening purposes. By expanding the use of neuroClues® beyond specialist settings, the company hopes to significantly improve the early detection and management of neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s disease on a global scale.
“This fundraising and the very positive clinical data from the study with the Brain Institute are strong signals that reaffirm our vision,” said Antoine Pouppez, CEO and co-founder of neuroClues®. “We aim to change the landscape of diagnosis and management of neurodegenerative diseases, significantly reducing the timeframes involved by creating a ‘stethoscope of the brain’ – a tool that will fundamentally improve the lives of patients all over the world.”
“White Fund is delighted to announce its investment in neuroClues®, a company that aligns perfectly with our investment strategy and our commitment to supporting innovative, close-to-market medtech startups in Belgium,” said Eric Brandt, White Fund co-director. “With the technologies its expert team is developing, neuroClues® has the potential to transform the early detection of neurodegenerative diseases and offer more effective treatments to millions of people worldwide.”
About neuroClues®
neuroClues®, formerly known as P3Lab, is a French-Belgian startup founded in 2020. The company is developing a medical device based on eye-tracking to aid in the early diagnosis of neurological diseases. neuroClues® is a partner of the Paris Brain Institute (France) and is incubated within the iPEPS-ICM, the Incubator of the Paris-Salpêtrière hospital. iPEPS-ICM is the healthtech partner of French STATION F dedicated to medtech and digital health startups. neuroClues® has established a network of international collaborations in Europe and the United States. The company raised 4.7 million euros in 2021, received 2.5 million euros in grants from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator, and just closed a 5 million euros Pre-Series A. neuroClues® is now ambitioning to raise another 10 million euros, half of which is covered by the EIC, to develop this DeepTech innovation in the European and American markets. More information: https://neuroClues.com
About White Fund
WHITE FUND is a private Belgian investment fund created to offer financing solutions and expertise to pre-commercialization phase MedTech companies. The shareholding of WHITE FUND includes private, public, local, and national Belgian shareholders with significant investment capacities: NOSHAQ, OGEO FUND, SFPI-FPMI, INVEST FOR JOBS, FINANCE&INVEST.BRUSSELS. WHITE FUND also brings together key players in the healthcare sector such as the University Hospital of Liège (CHU de Liège) and Solidaris, who support the project and provide their network of experts for the initiative.
About EIC Fund
The European Innovation Council Fund from the European Commission is an agnostic Fund: it invests across all technologies and verticals, and all EU countries and countries associated to Horizon Europe. It provides the investment component of the EIC Accelerator blended finance. The European Investment Bank acts as investment adviser to the EIC Fund.
The EIC Fund aims to fill a critical financing gap and its main purpose is to support companies in the development and commercialisation of disruptive technologies, bridging with and crowding in market players, and further sharing risk by building a large network of capital providers and strategic partners suitable for co-investments and follow-on funding.
The Fund pays particular attention to the empowerment and support of female founders as well as the ambition to reduce the innovation divide among EU countries.
Press contacts
– neuroClues®: Antoine Pouppez, CEO – antoine.pouppez@neuroClues.com
– White Fund: Eric Brandt, co-director – e.brandt@whitefund.be
