Startups

Hemispheric

Tel Aviv, Israel

Israeli NeuroAI company building Descartes, a six-billion-parameter frontier foundation model that translates non-invasive EEG and behavioral data into quantitative clinical insights. A patient wears a dry-electrode EEG headset for about 15 minutes while completing tablet or phone tasks. The company says Descartes was trained on more than 250,000 hours of multimodal data from over 100,000 participants collected through a global research network spanning Asia, Israel, and Boston. First applications target PTSD, mild traumatic brain injury, depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer's. Co-founded by CEO Dr. Hagai Lalazar and CTO Gidi Littwin. Emerged from stealth in July 2026 with $52 million in disclosed early-stage funding.

Founded 2019

Team

Gidi LittwinCo-Founder and CTO

Hagai LalazarCo-Founder and CEO

Investments

$52M2026-07	Howard Morgan, Yasmin Lukatz, Scott Belsky, Arkin Capital, Artofin, Hanaco Ventures, OneMind/Awareness Capital, L Catterton, OurCrowd, Protocol Labs, Naomi Azrieli
$52MUnknown date	OurCrowd, Hanaco Ventures, Protocol Labs, L Catterton

team@apexlogos.ai20 days ago
targets brain health studies and CNS drugs and device discovery
team@apexlogos.ai20 days ago
"Descartes is tested on thousands of people it was not trained on, generalizing to novel decoding tasks with breakthrough accuracy."
team@apexlogos.ai20 days ago
6 years to develop Descartes 1.0, their NeuroAI model with 6B params, 250K hours of data, +100k participants that is generalizable to new people
team@apexlogos.ai27 days ago
COMPETITION
team@apexlogos.ai27 days ago
Hemispheric research note (2026-09-09) Company Israeli NeuroAI firm, Tel Aviv HQ, founded September 2019 (Startup Nation Central; PitchBook). Formerly COGNTIV / Cogntiv Neurosystems. Site: https://hemispheric.ai. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hemispheric-ai. Also listed on PitchBook, Seedtable, Startup Nation Central Finder, FinSMEs, Pulse2, HIT Consultant, and a Claw & Talon dossier. The Neurofounders article used as a starting source (7 Sep 2026, Arctop/Piramidal webinar) does not mention Hemispheric. Product / Descartes Company and CTech/Globes/Wired/ToI describe Descartes 1.0 as a ~6 billion parameter frontier NeuroAI foundation model that translates non-invasive EEG into quantitative clinical insight. Protocol: ~15-minute dry-electrode EEG headset plus gamified tablet/phone tasks. No surgery. Claimed uses: diagnosis, treatment selection, longitudinal monitoring. First applications: PTSD, mTBI, depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's. Ynet 8 Aug 2026 also lists Parkinson's, OCD, tinnitus, ADHD, sleep disorders, cognitive decline, and schizophrenia risk. Named after René Descartes. Business model (Ynet): cloud model and API/usage fees for third-party apps (training, education, gaming). CTech quotes Lalazar: the company does not sell the underlying dataset, only access to a model trained on it. Descartes API waitlist is on the company site. Wired: first product is PTSD, FDA submission planned early next year, public rollout hoped for later in 2027; Alzheimer's clinical study in progress; team is developing its own scanners because traditional EEGs were never built for machine learning. Globes/CTech: presented to FDA CDRH leadership. Current headset described as off-the-shelf (Ynet: sensor cap existed since 1924); OEM not named. Corpus claims Company/PR: 250,000+ hours of multimodal EEG and behavioral data from 100,000+ paid volunteers via a proprietary global research network (Asia, Israel/Tel Aviv, Boston). Company claim of one of the world's largest privately owned brain-activity datasets. ToI quotes Littwin: over the past seven years we built the world's largest lab network. Wired: subjects did game-like tasks that activated different brain regions; model then tested on subsets including people diagnosed with PTSD, schizophrenia, and depression; company says it made accurate deductions. No independent peer-reviewed metrics in the coverage reviewed. Headcount 112 (CTech/Globes/ToI, Jul-Aug 2026) vs 114 in three countries (Ynet 8 Aug 2026). Operations: Israel, United States, Asia. Funding Emerged from stealth 15 Jul 2026. Headline USD 52 million. CTech: that total was raised across three early-stage rounds (pre-Seed, Seed, and Series A completed earlier in 2026); no split amounts or separate announcement dates. Existing Adex round is companyText Hemispheric, announcedAt 2026-07, roundAmount USD 52000000, roundId 758. New participations reused that round; do not create a second $52M round. Per-investor cheques and valuation not disclosed. PitchBook lists 13 investors / two deal rows with the latest as Later Stage VC $52M on 15 Jul 2026; only 11 names appear in open press. Disclosed institutional backers (all attached to roundId 758 via companyText) Hanaco Ventures (investorId 1604, participation 15751) OneMind/Awareness Capital (investorId 1605, participation 15752). Pulse2 quotes Garen Staglin as Founder of One Mind and GP at Awareness Capital; he is not listed as a personal investor. Protocol Labs (investorId 1551, participation 15755) L Catterton (investorId 1606, participation 15753) Arkin Capital (investorId 1607, participation 15749) OurCrowd (investorId 1608, participation 15754) Artofin (investorId 1609, participation 15750) Disclosed angels (roundId 758) Howard Morgan (investorId 19, participation 781) existing Naomi Azrieli (investorId 20, participation 15756) added Yasmin Lukatz (investorId 21, participation 863) existing; Globes misspells Lukacs Scott Belsky (investorId 22, participation 879) existing Lead status unresolved. HIT Consultant says co-led by Hanaco and OneMind/Awareness Capital. Globes says co-led among others and lists seven firms. CTech/Pulse2/FinSMEs list participants without a lead. isLead left false on new participations. Team Co-Founder and CEO Dr. Hagai Lalazar (id HagaiLalazar, investorId 3272, roleId 3018). Computational neuroscientist; PhD Hebrew University; BA UC Berkeley; postdoc Columbia Center for Theoretical Neuroscience; previously co-founded System1 Biosciences (Ynet: US brain-disease drug company with Columbia colleagues, sold to Roche). Age 50 (Ynet). LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/hagai-lalazar Co-Founder and CTO Gidi Littwin (id GidiLittwin, investorId 3273, roleId 3019). Co-founded RealFace (Apple acquired 2017); credited co-inventor of Face ID; Vision Pro deep learning; left Apple 2020 after Lalazar LinkedIn outreach (about 75 candidates). LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/gidi-littwin Unnamed: engineers from Face ID / Vision Pro / FDA-cleared medical imaging (CTech/Ynet/HIT Consultant). No other named officers, board seats, or scientific advisors in open coverage. Sources Primary PR (fetch blocked, Access Denied): https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260715241532/en/Hemispheric-Emerges-from-Stealth-with-%2452M-in-Funding-to-Launch-Descartes-the-First-Frontier-NeuroAI-Model-for-Decoding-the-Human-Brain CTech 15 Jul 2026: https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/rjentgbege Globes 15 Jul 2026: https://en.globes.co.il/en/article-neuroai-diagnostic-co-hemispheric-raises-52m-1001549435 Wired 15 Jul 2026: https://www.wired.com/story/the-apple-faceid-veteran-building-a-frontier-ai-model-for-the-human-brain/ Times of Israel 5 Aug 2026, Sharon Wrobel: https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-startup-looks-to-harness-ai-to-decode-the-language-of-the-brain/ paywalled; expert Lev warns the tech is unproven and early-phase, needs age/culture/gender/minority coverage, and that scalp EEG captures only the scalp and only some parts of the brain Ynet 8 Aug 2026: https://www.ynetnews.com/tech-and-digital/article/synbth4ime Pulse2: https://pulse2.com/hemispheric-raises-52-million-to-launch-descartes-neuroai-model-for-decoding-the-human-brain/ FinSMEs: https://www.finsmes.com/2026/07/hemispheric-raises-52m-in-funding.html Neurofounders 7 Sep 2026 (starting source; does not mention Hemispheric): https://www.neurofounders.co/articles/inside-the-frontier-of-brain-foundation-models Schema gaps / unconfirmed The $52M figure is a cumulative stealth total, not a single new Series A cheque; cannot split pre-Seed/Seed/Series A without amounts. Per-investor amounts unknown. Two or more unnamed investors (PitchBook 13 vs 11 named). Lead vs participant conflict. No valuation and no round-series field on the reused 2026-07 row. Former name COGNTIV is not a separate company record. Garen Staglin quoted for Awareness Capital; no personal cheque disclosed, so not added as an angel. EEG headset OEM, Asian lab sites, government/pharma partners, and FDA submission docket not named. No peer-reviewed performance metrics in press; ToI expert skepticism is the main independent caution. Employee count 112 vs 114; six years of stealth vs seven years of data collection vs 2019 founding. Cryptonomist recap claimed FDA submission early 2025, inconsistent with Wired's early-next-year PTSD filing plan; treat as error. Founders are not disclosed as investors in this round. CompanyId on round 758 is still null; parent should attach companyId Hemispheric to that companyText round.