Inner Cosmos, a new neurotechnology company founded by serial entrepreneur Meron Gribetz, today presented its first neural implant to treat depression. The neurotechnology company created what it calls “a digital pill for the mind," a tiny implant similar to a cochlear implant. “We've built the cochlear implant for the much larger market of depression, which later will also treat other cognitive disorders,” said founder and CEO Meron Gribetz.
Depression is the largest chronic disease in the world, affecting 241 million individuals before COVID, more than doubling during the pandemic. Mental disorders were projected to cost $16 trillion globally by 2030. To Gribetz, this enormous segment of the metal health industry represents a market ready for disruption. He teamed up with neurosurgeon Eric Leuthardt, a pioneer of laser neurosurgery to develop a brain computer interface (BCI) that is minimally embedded in the head. The tiny implant gets slipped under the skin and sits non invasively on the skull.
The unique system design has two parts. First, there is the implant, which is the size of a fingernail. It is implanted under the skin and lays unobtrusively next to the skull. The other part is the “prescription pod,” itself quite small, which snaps onto hair to power the device. The psychiatrist programs this device, this Power or data Pod, and they tune the device moving the dials for each individual patient’s need. The clinician need not be local to do this, either. Sensors are constantly monitoring the implant. A doctor can check a dashboard to see how their patients’ brains are doing in real time.The company recently received FDA Investigational Device Exemption approval to conduct the first human study.
Inner Cosmos recently closed a $10 M seed funding round led by Tel-Aviv based venture capital fund, lool ventures, with participation from KittyHawk VC and Loup Ventures among others.