Sonera is an early-stage startup developing high-performance sensors for non-invasive brain-computer interfaces with the goal of making neural data accessible on a wide scale. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Sonera CEO and co-founder Nishita Deka to learn more about the company.
Nishita Deka’s Background
Deka started Sonera with her co-founder, Dominic Labanowski, whom she met at the University of California, Berkeley’s Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences doctorate program, where they both specialized in semiconductor devices. Deka said:
“My research focused on the design and development of nanoscale devices using two-dimensional materials and high-throughput fabrication techniques, and Dom’s research focused on magnetic devices and a new class of magnetic materials called multiferroics.”
Formation Of Sonera
How did the idea for Sonera come together? Deka shared:
“Current methods for measuring brain activity are fairly rudimentary and limited in either signal quality or usability. One of the more promising techniques is the detection of magnetic fields generated by neural activity – this allows for high signal quality because human tissue is essentially invisible to magnetic fields and improved usability since magnetic fields can be measured without direct contact to the skin.”
“This approach, called biomagnetic sensing, is an attractive sensing modality from both a signal quality and usability standpoint. The challenge is that the collection of biomagnetic data today requires the use of ultra-high sensitivity magnetic sensors that are either large, expensive, power-hungry or some combination of the three. That means there’s a huge opportunity to work on novel sensors that can detect these fields in a much more scalable and practical way. During our time at Berkeley, we honed in on the detection of biomagnetic fields as an exciting application of the research we had done on magnetic devices. More specifically, we’ve come up with a way to build a high-sensitivity chip-scale magnetic sensor – one that is cheap, small, low-power, and light enough to be mass-produced and easily integrated into today’s electronics and consumer wearables for biomagnetic sensing applications.”
“And now we’re laser-focused on one goal: to make it as easy to detect brain activity as it is to detect heart rate today. Being able to achieve this goal will enable new applications of neural data across many industries, including personal computing, gaming, smart apparel, and healthcare, among others.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Deka reflected:
“Seeing our team’s ideas go from hypotheses to reality is incredibly satisfying. We’re now in a very exciting phase of the company where the scientific breakthroughs we discovered are being applied to build prototypes for real commercial products. All of this is only possible because of the talented group of individuals we get to work with, many of whom have years of expertise in their respective fields.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Deka explained:
“We are currently working on our first commercial product, the S1 chip, for detecting muscle activity; the S1 is designed to solve problems that plague electrically-based muscle sensing techniques like surface electromyography, such as low signal quality or poor usability in real-world conditions. The features of the S1 could pave the way for a new class of human-computer interfaces based on muscle movement, with applications ranging from gesture control for gaming and augmented realities to novel prosthetics and neurorehabilitation devices.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Deka cited:
“In September of this year, we announced $11 million in seed funding, led by Amplify Partners, with co-investment from Abstract Ventures and existing investors Spark Capital, Material Impact, and Boom Capital. In total, we’ve raised $20 million in capital from both venture financing and government awards. We also established a partnership with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to work on a project centered around the development of an augmented learning platform that would enable rapid acquisition of new skills during pilot training.”
Customer Success Stories
After asking Deka about customer success stories, she highlighted:
“Our product is not yet commercially available, but ongoing conversations with potential customers make us optimistic that we can solve issues with existing sensor technologies and create avenues for building entirely new products based on the availability of a high-performance commercially viable neural sensing platform.”
Funding
After asking Deka about the company’s funding, she revealed:
“Sonera has raised a total of $20 million from a combination of venture financing and government awards.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Deka assessed:
“We’re building a new sensor modality that offers capabilities at a scale that has been infeasible to date, with implications across industries ranging from personal computing to enterprise to healthcare. The evolution of existing markets and the creation of new markets in response to this capability will ultimately predict our total addressable market, and historically, for enabling technologies like ours that unlock access to a novel and useful set of data, this opportunity is massive.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Deka affirmed:
“Our new sensing technology offers a precise and non-invasive method of data collection – other non-invasive means of recording similar data are worse in performance and usability; meanwhile, others in the space are experimenting with invasive techniques to accumulate this type of information.”
“Those methods can yield a more precise picture but require navigating the complexities and trade-offs in choosing to more permanently attach equipment and technology to human bodies. While these technologies can be more useful for some clinical applications, they carry a lot of risk and are less likely to be mainstream in the near future.”
“Unlike other neural data companies focused solely on clinical applications, our technology has serious potential to transform consumer-facing applications, like personal computing, smart apparel, and gaming, to name a few. We also aim to do so within the next few years across a massive user base.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future company goals? Deka concluded:
“Our immediate goals are to build prototypes to showcase the utility of our novel sensing technology and the applications we can enable, with a focus on consumer wearables. Long-term, we’re most excited about the broader implications of the technology we’re developing and the new avenues of research that are unlocked by a powerful new capability like this. With our sensors, we can collect much larger and higher-quality datasets on neural activity in a variety of settings across a wide number of users. By doing so, we can significantly advance our understanding of how the human brain and body work – and then apply those insights to enhance the quality of life and health in various ways.”
