Hemispheric

• Hemispheric, a Tel Aviv-based NeuroAI company, emerged from stealth on 2026-07-15 with $52M in early-stage funding to launch Descartes, a foundation model for decoding the human brain from non-invasive EEG.^{1 2}
• Descartes is described as a ~6-billion-parameter model trained on more than 250,000 hours of EEG plus behavioral data from over 100,000 participants, translating brain activity into quantitative metrics for clinical decision-making.^{1 3}
• Co-founded by computational neuroscientist Hagai Lalazar (PhD) and Gidi Littwin, co-founder of RealFace (acquired by Apple and integrated into Face ID) and a contributor to Apple Vision Pro AI.^{1 2}
• The round was backed by Hanaco Ventures, OneMind/Awareness Capital, Protocol Labs, L Catterton, Arkin Capital, OurCrowd and Artofin, alongside angels including Howard Morgan, Naomi Azrieli and Scott Belsky.^{1 3}
• Target indications include ADHD, mild cognitive impairment, depression, anxiety, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s; the company reports 112 employees and has shown Descartes to the FDA ahead of a planned US and Europe rollout.^{1 2}
• Sits in the neuro-AI space alongside brain-inspired efforts such as Flourish, but focuses on non-invasive EEG-based diagnostics rather than implanted BCI neural control, which is why it falls outside the strict BCI pipeline filter.^{2 3}

Footnotes

1. https://healthtechhotspot.com/hemispheric-emerges-from-stealth-with-52m-in-funding-to-launch-descartes-the-first-frontier-neuroai-model-for-decoding-the-human-brain/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

2. https://thenextweb.com/news/hemispheric-neuroai-brain-model-funding ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

3. https://theadvisermagazine.com/market-research/business/neuroai-diagnostic-co-hemispheric-raises-52m/ ↩ ↩² ↩³