Existing investors MICA Ventures and WieInvest led IDUN Technologies’ seed extension round, complemented by existing investors including Joyance Partners and Privilege Ventures. New strategic investors CADFEM and think future GmbH joined the company in this round.
The Swiss neurotechnology startup IDUN Technologies is developing the Internet of Humans, a world where products and services react to your emotional and cognitive needs. While Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) provide a direct communication link between the brain and a computer or other external devices, there are still key challenges that limit BCI adoption for the mass market. Low comfort and convenience in device form factors, low reliability and robustness of data acquisition and missing real-life data validation are among them.
IDUN Technologies is solving these challenges with DRYODE Guardian, the company’s proprietary brain-sensing Hearable technology that allows continuous brain monitoring from the ear canal. The device can identify physiological processes in the brain relevant for the cognitive and emotional function of the brain.
In May 2021, the company launched the DRYODE Guardian and today serves customers such as Takeda with whom it has a Proof of Concept (PoC) project to record for sleep health. Another PoC focuses on hearing training based on EEG and the third PoC, scheduled to start towards the end of this year, will run in collaboration with a top market leader in hearing aids. “We have sold several Development Kits to the largest tech corporates in the world and from the market leaders in headphones almost are our on our customer list. We aim to sell 25 kits until the end of the year to validate our technology in our two strategic segments sleep health and hearing,” said Simon Backmann, CEO and Co-founder of IDUN Technologies.
The seed round extension will enable the company and its 15 engineers to validate its brain biomarkers through customer projects and technology advancement. “We have the opportunity to build unique brain data interpretation algorithms on our proprietary in-ear EEG data sets and build strong IP around that,” says CTO Moritz Thielen. “Validating the added value of continuous biomarker detection for use cases in sleep health and assisted hearing is our primary goal on the commercial side,” explains CCO and co-founder Séverine Gisin.
“We have hired two core team members to expand our neurointelligence platform further. There is a clear pain and need in both sleep and hearing markets which we can solve with our technology today,” concludes Backmann.
https://www.startupticker.ch/en/news/idun-technologies-secures-chf-2-million