Savonix is a global leader in cognitive health that has announced it has raised $9.6 million in Series A extension financing, which brings the total round to $14.7 million. The series A extension financing was co-led by new investors Fusion Fund and Wavemaker Partners (Draper Venture Network). DEFTA Partners and existing investors Rethink Impact and DigiTx Partners also participated in this round.
“Savonix is delighted to welcome this group of top tier investors, and this additional funding will help accelerate our continued growth and market expansion for our cognitive platform into key markets in the US and Asia,” said Savonix founder and CEO Mylea Charvat, Ph.D. in a statement. “The additional funding will also enable us to further develop and add additional features to our lead product Savonix Mobile, to better assess, track and monitor an individual’s cognitive health and to build personalized treatment plans to prevent and manage cognitive decline.”
What does Savonix do? The company leverages machine learning to gather insights from data to drive population health knowledge about cognition and its relationship to biomarkers and diseases like diabetes and dementia. The company’s flagship digital cognitive assessment platform known as Savonix Mobile delivers an accurate, actionable, and affordable mobile assessment of brain health.
“Alzheimer’s disease is the leading cause of death and disability in aging countries like Japan, far exceeding heart disease. Yet, despite Asia’s aging population, there are few clinical neuropsychologists in Asia leaving patients to endure long wait times and expensive pen-and-paper tests. We believe Savonix’s digital solution helps bridge this gap, so people get the diagnosis and care they need in a timely and cost-effective manner. We are excited to invest in Savonix as they scale their partnerships to build the cognitive datasets that do not exist currently, particularly for non-Caucasian populations,” said Paul Santos, Managing Partner at Wavemaker.
In conjunction with this funding round, Lu Zhang (founder and managing partner at Fusion Fund), BT Slingsby (CEO & Executive Director at Global Health Innovative Technology Fund), and Tony Estrella (Managing Director of Taliossa) are joining the company’s board of directors. They join Savonix’s current board members including Heidi Patel (Managing Director at Rethink Impact), and Dr. Mylea Charvat.
“Fusion Fund is excited to join the Savonix team, as we see great potential of applying AI technology in mental health screening and prevention. Savonix has the leading product platform and team in the industry for digital cognitive assessment. We are excited to accelerate the company’s growth as it enters the next stage of partnership and market expansion,” added Zhang.
DEFTA Partners managing director Kyoko Watanabe pointed out that dementia is a significant healthcare challenge especially in Japan — which has a rapidly aging population. And she believes that Savonix has developed clinically proven accessible solutions that is going to improve outcomes. And Watanabe is looking forward to working with Dr. Charvat and the Savonix team for addressing this critical problem in Japan and around the world.
