Israeli NeuroAI company Hemispheric has emerged from stealth and announced the completion of a $52 million financing round.
After six years of development, the company is launching Descartes, an AI model that it says can analyze brain activity measured by non-invasive means and turn it into quantitative metrics designed to help doctors and researchers make diagnoses and make decisions.
The company was founded by CEO Dr. Hagai Lalazer, a researcher in the field of neuroscience, and CTO Gidi Littwin, one of the founders of RealFace, which was acquired by Apple and whose technology was integrated into the Face ID system. Littwin later co-developed the AI capabilities of Apple Vision Pro glasses.
The financing round was co-led, among others, by Hanaco Ventures, OneMind Awareness Capital, Protocol Labs, L Catterton, Arkin Capital, OurCrowd and Artofin, alongside private investors including Howard Morgan, Naomi Azrieli, Yasmin Lukacs and Scott Belsky.
Hemisphere says the Descartes model includes six billion parameters and was trained on more than 250,000 hours of EEG data, a test that measures the electrical activity of the brain. In addition, behavioral data and additional information collected from more than 100,000 participants through the company's research network were also incorporated into the training of the model.
Hemispheric claims that this is one of the world's largest privately-owned data bases in the field of brain activity, which has been used to train the AI model. The company explains that unlike other organs in the body, for which there are objective tests that help doctors diagnose and choose treatment, in the field of brain health, diagnosis is currently based in many cases on questionnaires, conversations with the patient and clinical assessment. According to the company, the model it developed is designed to provide quantitative indicators that will help in the early identification of diseases, in distinguishing between different types of disorders and in adapting treatment more precisely to each patient.
In the first phase, the company plans to focus on applications related to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), mild brain injuries, depression, anxiety, schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease.
A test that takes about 15 minutes without an invasive procedure
According to the company, using the system does not require surgery or an invasive procedure. During a test that lasts about 15 minutes, the patient wears an EEG helmet that measures the electrical activity of the brain, and at the same time performs tasks using a tablet or mobile phone. The collected data is analyzed by the AI model, with the aim of providing doctors with information that will help in diagnosis, treatment selection and monitoring the patient's condition over time.
In parallel with the development of the technology, the company is also advancing its regulatory track. According to it, it has already presented the platform to the management of the Center for Medical Devices and Radiological Health of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is working towards expanding the use of the system in the US and Europe. It was also reported that the company is collaborating with government bodies and pharmaceutical companies.
Hemispheric has 112 employees in the fields of neuroscience, AI, software engineering, electronics and medical systems. The company also said it will use the new funds to expand operations in the US, to increase the database of brain activity data on which the model is trained, to promote regulatory processes and to expand collaborations with health systems, government bodies and pharmaceutical companies.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on July 15, 2026.
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