🧠⚙️ Neurotech Analyst & Forbes Contributor. Building a global health innovation ecosystem.
In January I saw a picture of the Mouthpad in an article from UC Berkeley College of Engineering and included it in the second edition of my then-brand new Substack newsletter NEUROTECH FUTURES. My first impression: This is product is so dang cool. Tomás Vega reached out and we struck up a chat. We interfaced ideas and puns. One chat turned into three or four, and now our ongoing dialogue is one of my favorite channels to broaden my lens in #neurotechnology, #braincomputerinterfaces, design thinking, market access, functional performance, and centering lived experience for people living with disability. My growing conviction: This company is so dang important. So when Augmental closed their seed round, it filled me with optimism that the spirit of "Think Different" is still alive in both industry and private capital. Kudos to Adrien Cohen and SCI Ventures as well as other angel investors in this round for backing real innovation that is already meeting the needs of nearly 50 people living with disability. I wanted to write up their story to share my perspective on the many ways that this powerful, relatively affordable wearable device could bridge the present and future of BCI for people with limited use of their hands. I'd recommend a "follow" to track their progress (impressive in the last 10 months alone!) Check out my article linked below for more detail on the vision and possibilities in what they're building. Congrats to the team 👏
After nearly 5 years in the garage, we’re stoked to announce our $4M Seed round led by SCI Ventures, Murata, Revere Partners, LivEdge Capital, Fen Ventures, Carao Ventures, and Tesserakt Ventures. 🎉 It’s an honor to have backing from experts in the neuro, dental, electronics, and disability spaces and to keep improving human-computer interaction, inspired by real humans. With these resources, we’ll be able to get MouthPads^ to more people and unlock FDA clearance for insurance funding and wheelchair control. And look out for V2: MouthPad^Audio, for whisper + silent speech. We truly believe that by designing for those who are most constrained, we can make solutions that are better for everybody. Bows to our angels for being with us on the journey: Eric Migicovsky, Nirav Patel, Josh Spear, Joseph O'Doherty, and many other amazing humans. And thanks to Naveen Rao for telling our story! Check it out: https://lnkd.in/grdqgdv5
Tomás Vega
5mo
Thanks for the kind words and for sharing our story, Naveen! I've really enjoyed our discussions on how to bring solutions to the real world. Excited to keep building and learning together. Onwards!
Healthcare Executive | Leadership | Medical Device Commercialization | Building Global Business Units
5moNaveen, great piece and example of a success story in the making - add that to the list of things to discuss!