Startup behind brain-training VR app raises $2.5M
The free Meta Quest app Enhance VR is designed to be a "gym for the mind". New capital will accelerate development.
I met Virtuleap CEO Amir Bozorgzadeh a few years ago, had a chat with him, and tried Enhance VR.
The VR app consists of a series of fun and challenging mini-games that allow you to test and train seven human cognitive abilities. These include memory, attention, information processing, mental flexibility, problem-solving, motor control and spatial orientation.
Designed by neuroscientists, the mini-games are playful versions of neuropsychological assessment tools.
"Our long-term vision is to create useful datasets for research. The data collected will be used to develop an AI algorithm that could serve as a biomarker for early detection of diseases such as dementia and Parkinson's," Bozorgzadeh told me in 2020.
New VR app in development with Roche
Virtuleap has now secured $2.5 million in new funding, Venturebeat reports. The investment is led by GED Ventures Portugal. The additional capital will be used to accelerate the development and commercialization of the software offering.
In addition to Enhance VR, Virtuleap is working on another product to be released in 2024: the Cogniclear VR, which is being developed in collaboration with the pharmaceutical company Roche. The VR app offers various tools for early detection of cognitive diseases such as Alzheimer's.
Enhance VR now has more than 60,000 registered users and supports five languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, and Chinese. German, French and Dutch will be added in the first quarter of 2024.
The VR app is available for free in the App Lab for Meta Quest, on Steam for PC VR-compatible headsets and in the Pico Store.
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