This morning EEG-focused startup Zeto announced that it scored $7.3 million in Series A funding. The new infusion of cash was led by Seraph Group with participation from Aphelion Capital, SV Tech Ventures, and Shangbay Capital. 

WHAT THEY DO 

The Santa Clara-based startup created a wireless headset, which uses dry electrodes, and a proprietary software. Cleared by the FDA, the headset, called the zEEG, is able to perform an EEG reading and then transfer those results onto a provider’s laptop, phone or tablet via the cloud. 

The headset includes 19 electrodes and weighs a little under a pound and a half. The company also has a physician-facing software for analysis and an EEG interpretation service. It pitches the tech as an alternative to traditional EEGs, which take roughly an hour to set up and include a lot of wires. 

WHAT IT’S FOR 

The new money will go towards accelerating the commercialization of the zEEG. 

“Current products are far behind what users need and Zeto is building a suite of convenient and intuitive products to eliminate the most time consuming and labor-intensive activities involved in traditional EEG,” Aswin Gunasekar, CEO and founder of Zeto, said in a statement. “As a subsequent step, we plan to utilize artificial intelligence to not only supplement the reading physician with analytics and insight but also expand the diagnostic utility of EEG worldwide in areas of medicine where it has been underutilized."

MARKET SNAPSHOT 

This isn’t the first digital health company focused on EEGs. In 2018, a startup named MemoryMD received an FDA clearance for a disposable 19-channel EEG headset. Like the zEEG, it can transmit to computers and cloud-based databases. 

Other neurological-focused startups are using digital to help stimulate the brain. For example, Flow uses a stimulation headset and therapy app to treat depression. The headset delivers electrical signals to stimulate activity in the brain.

ON THE RECORD 

"We believe a new era is around the corner when researchers can accelerate our understanding of the brain with this breakthrough device and software platform. It not only makes commercial sense, but also can serve as the infrastructure and library for neurological knowledge that leads to better diagnosis and treatment of brain disorders," Tuff Yen, CEO of Seraph Group, said in a statement.