NaoX Technologies, a start-up developing next-generation electroencephalogram sensors, has raised €4.3 million from Kurma Partners, Bpifrance's Patient Autonomy Fund, BNP Paribas Développement and Majycc e-Santé.
This round also includes non-dilutive financing from Bpifrance. This financing round follows a pre-seed with Attali & Associés. Through this operation, the company aims to conduct a clinical trial with the Adolphe de Rothschild Foundation Hospital as principal investigator, which should start by the end of 2022, with a view to obtaining CE marking and marketing at the end of 2023. The first pathology concerned is epilepsy.
NaoX was co-founded in 2018 by Hugo Dinh, a graduate from Ecole Polytechnique, and Michel Le Van Quyen, a research director at Inserm, respectively CEO and chief scientific officer. A world expert in electroencephalograms, known for his epileptic seizure prediction algorithms published in Nature and Science, Michel Le Van Quyen met Hugo Dinh, a neuroscience enthusiast and project leader, in 2015. Convinced by the complementarity of their approaches, the two scientists set themselves the goal of democratising electroencephalograms and improving the monitoring and diagnosis of neurological disorders through NaoX. They were soon joined by Emmanuel Lange, director of new technologies, and Khalil Kababe, hardware designer. The NaoX sensors were then tested during various preliminary studies conducted by the Inserm Biomedical Imaging Laboratory.
An electroencephalogram while patients go about their business
NaoX enables miniaturised sensors to be embedded in an everyday object - simple headphones - that continuously record the electrical activity of the wearer's brain. The miniaturisation of these sensors is based on a unique and patented technology. The data collected is then processed by artificial intelligence software and transmitted securely to the neurologist. NaoX thus solves the three classic difficulties of electroencephalograms: electrode placement, access to real-life data, and the complexity of data interpretation.
The electroencephalogram is the reference test for diagnosing and monitoring many diseases that affect brain function, including epilepsy, which affects 600,000 people in France. By refining diagnosis and monitoring, NaoX's solution aims to direct patients to the right treatments.
Hugo Dinh, CEO of NaoX, said: “The technology of electroencephalogram hadn’t evolved much in the last century. The advantage of our solution is that we can access the data over a long period of time while making the patient's life easier. Our solution also simplifies the work of doctors: the physiological information is transmitted from the headphones to the patient's smartphone and then to the doctors during a physical appointment, or via a secure connection. Our artificial intelligence algorithms assist the doctor in reading these large volumes of data.”NaoX's fundraising comes at the same time as a new partnership with the Adolphe de Rothschild Foundation Hospital, a European reference in neurology, for the organisation of a clinical trial that should start by the end of 2022 with 50 patients.
Dr. Gilles Huberfeld, neurologist and researcher at the Rothschild Foundation Hospital, said: “This research project will revolutionise the way EEGs are performed and open up new areas of data analysis for diagnosis and patient follow-up.”
Hugo Dinh added: “If the results are conclusive, CE marking, and marketing could be envisaged as early as the end of 2023 in Europe and the United States.”
In the meantime, NaoX's workforce should double by the end of the year to around 20 people.
