Interaxon Inc. ( Muse®), the leading consumer neurotechnology company, announced that it has closed an oversubscribed $9.5M USD Series C funding round through a non-brokered private placement. The round was led by BDC Capital, Alabaster (family office of Sunny Vu, founder of Misfit), and Export Development Canada, along with new institutional investors including Phyto Partners, Iter Investments, Intretech(HK) Co, and The Clavis Foundation. Co-founder Ariel Garten also participated in the round. As a result of the strong market interest, the Company has opened an allotment for additional oversubscription, with a second (final) close planned by the end of Q3 for strategic investment.
With this funding, Interaxon aims to enrich its leading brain health platform through launching an integrated wellness membership model and further research and validation of an industry-first feature tracking longitudinal changes in the brain. Interaxon will also support expanding offerings for third-party developers, researchers, clinicians and other strategic partnerships.
“At Muse, we’re passionate about supporting the neuroscience research community,” said Ariel Garten, co-founder of Interaxon. “We are excited for the value this funding will unlock, including the development and validation of an industry first, user-friendly EEG measurement showing changes in brain age that can provide value in a variety of research and clinical settings.”
The Membership Shift: Increasing Accessibility to Brain Health Tools
Expanding their brain health platform offerings, Muse’s first-ever brain performance measurement will allow users to compare themselves to various groups across the broader population, and against their own historical values over time. A recent discovery from Muse’s R&D team has showcased exciting new patterns in their extensive EEG database with strong indications of brain health. The Company aims to leverage these patterns through the development of groundbreaking metrics that will provide users meaningful insights into brain health and lifestyle factors (i.e. meditation, sleep, alcohol, stress, exercise, diet, etc.) that affect it. These personalized insights along with other new biosensor trend reports will roll out later this year, and will be included in the new membership program.
The new membership model, launching in Q1 2023, provides a lower-cost entry for customers to try advanced wearable EEG technology without the high upfront cost. Members will have access to participate in community research initiatives, continuous expert support, ongoing content updates, headband replacements and new device models, when available. This offering is strategic to Muse’s ongoing commitment to be a long-term wellness partner, providing new and innovative ways for users to gain deeper insight into their brain health and overall well-being.
Investor Quote: Lally Rementilla, Managing Partner of BDC Capital said, “We’re proud to support Muse in their pursuit of continually providing users with not only a deeper understanding of their brain health and overall wellbeing, but interventions that support them when they need it. It’s a privilege to partner with Muse as they continue to expand their product offerings and extensive IP portfolio.”
Investor Quote: Larry Schnurmacher, Managing Partner at Phyto Partners, said, “The innovation happening in and around neuro-wellness and brain health space is accelerating and we are privileged to support Muse in their mission to not only provide a wider audience offering, but also in providing the research community and SDK partners with tools to further the transformation of this space.”
The Company will also invest in key strategic partnerships including SDK and research partnerships opportunities that leverage their world leading EEG technology platform in the development of data-driven studies and systems that will support the advancement of neuroscience, neurotechnology and brain health at large.
To learn more about Interaxon’s investment opportunities contact Derek Luke, CEO of Interaxon, at derek@interaxon.ca.
About Interaxon Inc.:
Interaxon is a late-stage venture company in the neurotechnology space, with a brain and biosensor platform of hardware and software products, a sophisticated data-cloud infrastructure, popular consumer and licensable B2B products, the largest database of brain data in the world, and an IP fortress with several fundamental granted brain, biosignal, VR and AR patents with early priority dates. Interaxon is currently completing a second investment round to support converting the company’s current up-front cost model to an integrated subscription model.
Interaxon is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, and has subsidiaries in the U.S. and Ireland.
Milestones we’re excited about:
- Community: More than 500,000 Musers globally
- Sessions of meditation with Muse®: Over 100 million minutes to date and currently one of the largest brain data (EEG) collections in the world.
- Research institutions using Muse®: The Mayo Clinic, NASA, Harvard, MIT, U of T, UCL, UCSD, Inria, UVic, UBC, and many more.
- Meditating with Muse® works: Muse has been used in over 200 published studies, including Mayo Clinic who demonstrated meditating with Muse increases quality of life, and decreases stress and fatigue in cancer patients.
- Better Sleep with Muse® : A recent 2021 study with ~200 participants led by Western University, Cambridge Brain Science, Hatch, and Interaxon that used Muse S EEG-sleep support technology showed a 20% improvement in the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) after 6 weeks of following Muse protocols.
- Untangle Podcast: With more than 11 million listens, and growing daily, Untangle® hosts Patricia Karpas and Ariel Garten interview thought-provoking authors, experts and leaders in areas related to neuroscience, mindfulness, sleep, brain health practices, and more.
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