Neural Galaxy completed a pre-A round of financing of USD15.5 million, it said in a statement recently. The funds will go to further accelerate clinical trials, product development, hiring and advancement of precision diagnosis and treatment technologies for brain disorders, the firm stated.
Neural Galaxy is a leading-edge brain science company founded in July 2019 by Prof. Liu Hesheng of Harvard Medical School, Robert Desimone, Feng Guoping, and Coach Wei of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The company’s mission is to solve brain disorders and achieve stronger intelligence.
The Pre-A Funding was led by Lightspeed China Partners, followed by Frees Fund, Bohe Fund, 3E Bioventures, Tsingyuan Venture and Ray Stata. Neural Galaxy has raised over $20M so far, including an angel round financing of USD6.2M at the end of 2019.
“Brain disorders are huge challenges facing our society today, such as Alzheimer’s, depression and autism,” said James Mi, founding partner of Lightspeed China Partners, adding: “Neural Galaxy’s technological breakthroughs opened up a new path in the treatment of these brain disorders. This investment reflects Lightspeed’s commitment to innovation , our confidence in Neural Galaxy, a company at the forefront of brain science, and our confidence in the team’s global leadership”.
“We recognized Neural Galaxy’s potential immediately when we first saw them about two years ago. We understood how their work could make a big difference in the world”, said Feng Li, founding partner of FreeS Fund. “However, we didn’t expect them to be making a difference this fast. In a short timeframe since we led Neural Galaxy’s Angel round, the company has made progresses beyond our expectations. Its products have already been adopted by leading hospitals and its technology is already saving patients and families from brain disorders”.
The bottleneck in solving brain diseases lies in the lack of understanding of their functional mechanisms, and scientific breakthroughs are urgently needed, Neural Galaxy said. The team has developed the world’s first and currently only Precision Individual Functional Atlas technology, which can precisely quantify more than 200 functional regions for an individual’s entire brain.
“Brain disorder is a global challenge. It is also a huge market opportunity,” said Coach Wei, Neural Galaxy’s co-founder and chief executive. “Human understanding of the brain is still in its infancy, Neural Galaxy’s research opened a new door to understand how our brain works. We’re developing novel diagnosis technologies and treatment solutions, and working closely with top institutions and hospitals in China and US to help solve this global challenge”, he added.
“In the near future, the healthcare industry would be booming like today’s Internet industry” , said Karen Liu, co-founder of 3E Bioventures, “Neural Galaxy is working on a blue ocean opportunity.”
About 1 billion people in the world currently suffer from brain diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s, epilepsy and autism. These disorders make up 28 percent of the global healthcare burden. As the population is aging and with rapid urbanization, brain disorders may present an increasingly greater challenge in the next few decades.
About Neural Galaxy, Inc.
Neural Galaxy is a brain science company with a mission to treat brain disorders and build strong artificial intelligence. Based on scientific breakthroughs from over a decade of research at Harvard, Neural Galaxy delivers technology products that enable a deep understanding of our brains, the discovery of neural mechanisms, effective diagnosis and treatment of brain disorders.
For more information, please visit www.neuralgalaxy.com
# # #