Cognixion, a neurotech A.I. company with operations in Toronto and Santa Barbara, has raised US $1 million in seed funding from nine angel investors led by Tom Washing, Founding Partner of Sequel Venture Partners. Washing assembled the angel group and negotiated the terms of the transaction.
Cognixion, formerly Smartstones, Inc., is building a commercially viable biosignal recognition system that helps nonverbal people communicate using their mind, powered by AI.
photo credit: geralt via pixabay
News Release
Neurotech A.I. Startup Cognixion™ Secures $1 Million Angel Seed Round Led by Tom Washing of Sequel Venture Partners
Unlocking a chorus of 370 million nonverbal humans, startup is building a platform that allows anyone to communication using a brain computer interface and artificial intelligence.
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (PRWEB) February 07, 2018
Cognixion, the neurotech A.I. company with operations in Toronto, Ontario (Canada) and Santa Barbara, CA (USA), announced a $1M Angel Seed Round led by Tom Washing, Founding Partner of Sequel Venture Partners, to create an interface that helps nonverbal people communicate using their mind, powered by AI. The biosignal processing platform will be able to translate brainwave patterns via a BCI (Brain Computer Interface) directly into verbal communication.
How BCI works: Sensors are worn on the head or implanted within the brain. Once they detect electrical signals within the brain, the sensors send data to software that runs on a computer or mobile device that is connected directly to the internet – or private cloud. Specifically, Cognixion integrates its signal recognition software with BCI and other biosensing devices as well as mobile app and cloud systems, and translates brainwave signals directly into verbal communication as well as remotely controlling mobile apps.
“There has been a huge surge in venture capital and corporate investment in the areas of BCI, Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality,” said Andreas Forsland, CEO of Cognixion. “This financing builds on an exceptional year for BCI startups and accelerates our efforts of becoming a fundamental platform for the mainstream use of BCI as a viable communication method.”
In 2017, Neuralink (Elon Musk), Facebook Building 8 (Mark Zuckerberg), Kernel (Bryan Johnson), NeuroPace as well as a plethora of consumer-grade BCI startups like Neurable, MindMaze, InteraXon/Muse, Lumos Labs, Rythm, Benevolent AI and Corporate Venture groups saw collective investments upwards of $1billion over the past couple years. The integration of Cognixion software with these kinds of technologies will enable the world to communicate and interact with each other in new ways, unlocking human potential for literally millions of people. According to Forsland, “the brain is the ultimate user interface and the use of A.I. is the future of augmenting human capabilities.”
There were nine angel investors that participated in the financing, led by Tom Washing who assembled the angel group and negotiated the terms of the transaction, highlighting the impressive quality and broad range of expertise represented by the participants.
“Andreas has assembled a great team and Cognixion’s technology is on the cutting edge of the BCI space,” said Washing. “Our group consists of highly successful entrepreneurs, wall street fund managers and senior technology executives at companies like Google, that are very excited to join this highly promising venture. Their extensive networks and experience with innovative startups offer Cognixion enormous value beyond the dollars invested.”
Currently in beta, healthcare organizations and potential users can join the waitlist: cognixion.com.
About Cognixion
Cognixion™ (formerly Smartstones, Inc.) is a neurotech A.I. company building a commercially viable biosignal recognition system that moves neuroscience from the lab to market. The new artificial intelligence-powered signal processing platform translates brainwave signals via a BCI directly into communication.
Cognixion is located in Toronto, Ontario and Santa Barbara, California, and builds technology solutions that elegantly blend the power of artificial intelligence (A.I.), neuroscience (BCI) and augmented reality (AR). Cognixion is internationally recognized for its innovation and use of exponential technologies to solve a social and healthcare global challenge – affecting the lives of 370 million people unable to speak. Cognixion has won the prestigious Roddenberry Prize, the Gold Edison Award for Social Impact, and the Singularity University Global Grand Challenge for Education for its potential to impact over a billion lives.
For more information visit us at http://www.Cognixion.com.