Why we invested in NeuraLight, digitizing neurology
Diagnosing and monitoring patients with neurological disorders is currently a highly subjective process that often results in misdiagnosis and fails to treat patients effectively.
But now, NeuraLight is using standard web cameras, computer vision, and artificial intelligence (AI) to support the development of objective and sensitive biomarkers for neurological disorders. The company, which launched last year, was co-founded by Micha Breakstone, a serial entrepreneur with a PhD in cognitive sciences, and a team of superstars, including repeat entrepreneur Eddy Benami and Gil Shklarski, chief technology officer at Flatiron Health. Micha led the launch of NeuraLight after selling his previous company, Chorus.ai, to ZoomInfo for $575 million.
We invested in NeuraLight because of its founder-market fit, and because we think its AI-driven platform for neurological assessments – which integrates multiple digital markers, known as oculometrics – is going to transform how patients are diagnosed and treated. It also will support the creation of new and effective drugs to help the one billion people suffering from neurological disorders.
Samsung Next participated in a $25 million Series A round led by Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT). Other investors included Breyer Capital, VSC Ventures, Chris Mansi and David Golan, the co-founders of Viz.ai; and Lily Sarafan, co-founder of TheKey.
NeuraLight is working to accelerate and improve drug development, monitoring, and precision care for patients with neurological disorders. The oculometrics extracted by NeuraLight’s technology serve as a reliable proxy for currently used clinical endpoints, providing an accurate snapshot of a person's neurological status. This is particularly valuable to pharmaceutical companies because it facilitates smart phenotyping, reduces misdiagnosis, and measures disease progression, accurately and sensitively. In fact, working with pharmaceutical companies is key to NeuraLight’s go-to-market strategy.
NeuraLight’s technology promises to improve accuracy in clinical trials by removing inter-rater variability, currently estimated to be about 25%. Similarly, NeuraLight’s biomarkers will provide a significantly more sensitive measure for drug effectiveness and disease progression. In multiple sclerosis (MS), for example, the time required to observe significant change will decrease from two years to between three and six months. In addition to MS, NeuraLight’s oculometrics are applicable to a wide range of neurological disorders, including Alzheimer's, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and Parkinson’s.
We think NeuraLight’s platform will harness the power of big data for neurological insights that both improve the drug development process and transform the standard of care for neurology.
Jonathan Machado is a Managing Director for Samsung Next. Samsung Next's investment strategy is limited to its own views and does not reflect the vision or strategy of any other Samsung business unit, including, but not limited to, Samsung Electronics.