Most people track their steps, their heart rate, and their sleep. Almost nobody tracks their cognition. One in three people will face a neurological condition in their lifetime, with over 70% of cognitive decline happening silently before diagnosis. That gap is exactly what Connectome Health is working to close.
Connectome Health, a Zurich NeuroTech startup, tracks brain activity repeatedly over time and builds personalised baselines that reveal subtle shifts early on, from burnout, ADHD, or early dementia. The company wants cognitive health monitoring to become as routine as checking your fitness ring at the end of a run.
Connectome Health has raised a $2 million pre-seed round, led by Redstone, with Concept Ventures, Octopus, and transatlantic angels joining the round. The financing also includes $120k non-dilutive public funding.
Why Traditional Tools Fall Short:
Traditional tools like fMRI and PET scans are often expensive, complex, and out of reach for most people. Early-stage neurological issues frequently go undetected, leaving many without the insights they need to act before it’s too late. Most cognitive assessments are single-point snapshots taken in a clinical setting, which means they often miss what is actually happening in day-to-day life.
While traditional cognitive tests like Cambridge Brain Sciences or Lumosity capture single moments, Connectome Health tracks brain activity repeatedly over time. That longitudinal design is the core difference. A one-off test tells you where you are today. A personalised baseline tells you whether things are shifting, and by how much.
Science From Imperial College:
Lucas Scherdel and Dr. Rufus Mitchell-Heggs, both neuroscientists with personal experience of brain disorders, founded Connectome in 2024. Scherdel’s career spans WHO global health programs and consumer R&D, while Mitchell-Heggs brings computational neuroscience from memory and social cognition research.
Their technology stems from Imperial College London’s LUCID study, which proved that everyday behaviours leave unique, measurable signatures in brain blood flow, enabling real-world cognitive tracking beyond lab constraints. That research foundation gives the platform a credible starting point compared to consumer brain apps built primarily on self-reported data.
Connecting Neural Data to Context:
What separates Connectome Health from hardware-first neurotechnology players is where it focuses its interpretation. Unlike Kernel or Muse, which are hardware-focused, or Cognixion, which focuses on AR NeuroTech, Connectome’s edge is contextual interpretation, linking neural signals to sleep, activity, and behavioural load. The platform shows why cognition changes, making brain health actionable for consumers and researchers without replacing clinical care.
The company’s mission is to make cognition measurable, interpretable, and trustworthy over time, covering how people think, focus, decide, work, relate to others, and age. That scope puts it at the intersection of consumer HealthTech and clinical research, two markets that are growing in parallel right now.
Who the Platform Serves:
Connectome Health is building for three distinct audiences: individuals wanting to understand and manage their brain health, clinics looking for trackable cognitive data across patient populations, and platforms and research organisations that need longitudinal brain health data at scale. That tiered approach gives the company multiple paths to build revenue without being locked into a single market.
The funding fuels product rollout with select partners and R&D to expand beyond lifestyle and wearables into broader diagnostics. For founders and operators reading this, the platform’s research arm is worth watching if you are building in the mental performance or occupational health space, both areas where cognitive health monitoring is increasingly relevant. You can learn more about how Connectome Health approaches platform and research partnerships directly on their site.
The Broader Problem They Are Solving:
The timing matters here. Burnout, brain fog, and attention issues have become mainstream workplace concerns, not just clinical ones. CEO Lucas Scherdel puts it directly: cognitive capacity underpins how people think, work, relate, and age, yet it remains poorly understood, with evidence showing cognitive health is quietly deteriorating at scale, particularly among younger generations.
Cognitive health monitoring is moving from a niche clinical category into something organisations and individuals are starting to demand. Connectome Health is building infrastructure for that shift, grounded in neuroscience research rather than wellness trends.
Connectome Health at a Glance:
Connectome Health is a Zurich-based NeuroTech startup that raised $2 million in pre-seed funding in early 2026 to build a longitudinal cognitive health platform. Its approach tracks brain changes over time using personalised baselines rooted in research from Imperial College London’s LUCID study. The platform connects neural data to everyday context like sleep and activity, serving individual users, clinics, and research organisations. For anyone building in HealthTech, mental performance, or occupational wellness, Connectome Health’s architecture offers a model for how brain health data can move from the clinic into daily life in a practical, research-backed way.
