Every three seconds, there is a new case of dementia. This equates to 10 million new cases globally each year. One-third of seniors die with some sort of this disease, and the worldwide prevalence is expected to be 50 million in 2030, and 152 million in 2050.

Currently, there are no treatments. This makes dementia a global public health priority.

How Did Elevvo Came to Light?

María López is an innovative entrepreneur with a deep passion for technology, business strategy, and human understanding. “I’m Co-Founder and CEO of Bitbrain, a company founded in 2010 with the mission of leading the penetration of neurotechnology into our daily lives,” says Ms. López.

Bitbrain’s mission led them to develop several products. One of them is Elevvo, a neurostimulation medical device for cognitive improvement in patients with pre-dementia that is expected to delay the onset of the disease.

Elevvo has demonstrated its ability to significantly increase brain function in seniors with cognitive deterioration, enhancing around 25% in cognitive variables in as little as 8 hours of treatment.

“The state of the art of other cognitive interventions – for instance, cognitive training – has shown enhancements lower than 10%, with an average duration of 26 hours. This means that Elevvo obtains 2.5 times more effects in 4.2 times less time,” explains María López.

Current Development and Future Goals

Ms. López and her team have invested over €4.5 million in the research and initial validation of Elevvo. In addition, more than 250 people have done 2,500+ sessions using the technology, and the results are really promising.

However, successful market uptake requires further development and clinical validation. These are the next goals for Elevvo’s team.

Client Success Stories

Ms. López shared two of her client user/patient testimonials with us:

“I’m very happy with the programme. I have much more facility to read, something I couldn’t do before because I got lost. I also notice that my memory has improved a lot. And it might seem silly, but all this has helped me gain self-esteem.”

“Currently, I don’t forget anything. I notice it a lot when I read French and when I do word search. I have found [Elevvo] to be a great programme.”

Biggest Achievements

Bitbrain presented during 2018 International CES the world’s first prototype of a brain-to-vehicle technology – a project they developed for Nissan.

But by far the biggest achievement of Elevvo’s team has been improving the cognitive abilities of seniors with more than 25%.

Connection with InvestHorizon

In comparison with other neurotech companies, Bitbrain has not raised any money so far. That’s because they wanted to build a scientific-grounded solution and the times of research, development, and validation are not easily compatible with VC requirements.

Now, they’re ready to explore this alternative because they have the technology, it’s broadly validated, and they have designed a highly scalable business model. 

“InvestHorizon has helped us to improve our business model, to validate our assumptions, and to understand our strengths and weakness. Thanks to InvestHorizon, we feel that we are prepared to raise money and go for the next step in our ambitious strategy,” concludes María López.