Connectome has closed a pre-seed financing round of approximately $2M USD to revolutionise how brains are interpreted and to provide a clearer, more personalised picture of cognitive health by making it measurable.

The technology is designed to improve how changes in brain function are measured and interpreted over time. By focusing on longitudinal measurement rather than isolated snapshots, Connectome aims to provide more reliable insight into how brain activity varies within individuals and how it may shift in relation to lifestyle, environment, and health.

This approach has potential relevance across a range of contexts, including neurodevelopmental differences and neurodegenerative conditions, where early changes may occur well before traditional clinical thresholds are reached. Importantly, the platform is intended to support research, monitoring, and decision-making rather than replace clinical judgement.

The pre-seed round was led by Redstone, with participation from leading early-stage venture funds, including Concept Ventures and Octopus, as well as strategic investors and experienced angels across Switzerland, the UK, Europe, and the US. The round includes $120k in non-dilutive public innovation funding, alongside private venture capital.  This support reflects confidence in Connectome’s underlying scientific and technical approach.

Connectome is committed to improving how brain data is measured and interpreted by making it easier to see biological changes in the brain and to understand how lifestyle factors impact your brain health. It will help people better understand how cognition evolves and see the impact of habits, environments, and tools on cognitive capacity, which could support earlier identification of change and more informed intervention strategies.

The technology is based on research with Imperial College London. The LUCID study showed that everyday behaviour leaves a measurable, unique signature in brain activity. These signatures can be used to improve how brain activity is measured in real-world, day-to-day life.

This approach opens new ways to understand, monitor, and improve cognitive function, with the potential to transform how conditions such as ADHD and dementia are managed by detecting changes in cognitive health earlier and understanding how to positively influence cognition. One in three people will experience a neurological or mental health condition in their lifetime, and over 70% of cognitive decline occurs without noticeable symptoms before traditional diagnosis. Existing brain measurement methods rely on isolated, static snapshots. Connectome’s first product addresses this by personalising brain measurement, tracking brain activity repeatedly over time to build an individual baseline rather than relying on one-off readings.

By combining brain data with daily lifestyle context such as sleep, activity, and behavioural load, it links brain changes to real-world factors and focuses on what those changes mean for each individual, rather than applying broad generalisations.

Connectome’s founders are both experienced neuroscientists with lived experience of disorders affecting the brain.  CEO Lucas Scherdel leads the overall strategic direction and commercial execution for Connectome and has a background in R&D and building new ventures.  He previously led global Research and Development programmes in consumer health and worked for the World Health Organization and has advised numerous start-ups and public and private funds in health and tech.  He founded Connectome alongside Dr Rufus Mitchell-Heggs, who is also the company’s Chief Science Officer. He is a PhD-trained computational neuroscientist and will lead the scientific development and validation of the company’s neural biomarkers. Prior to Connectome, his research involved understanding the mechanisms that underlie memory and social cognition and measuring how these can become disrupted in diseases and disorders

Lucas Scherdel, CEO of Connectome, said, “We started Connectome to address a growing gap: while physical health measurement has advanced rapidly, our ability to understand and proteca t the brain has not kept pace.

Cognitive capacity underpins how we think, work, relate, and age, yet it remains poorly understood. Evidence shows cognitive health is quietly deteriorating at scale, with rising burnout, brain fog, and attention and memory issues, especially among younger generations. Our environments and technologies now place unprecedented demands on the brain, but we lack everyday ways to detect early change or protect long-term cognitive health.

Connectome exists to close this gap. By measuring brain function longitudinally, we move beyond isolated snapshots to build personalised models of brain function, with the potential to inform future clinical care and disease progression. Understanding the brain is no longer a niche concern - it is essential to human wellbeing and societal resilience.”

The LUCIID study will continue to explore how reliable repeated measurements are in defining personal brain baselines and further develop systematic methods to use context to refine the interpretation of brain change.

Explaining the LUCID study, Rufus Mitchell-Heggs, CSO & Co-founder, said, “Think of healthy brain blood flow like a neighbourhood rather than a single point. Most healthy people sit within the same broad 'zone,' where patterns of oxygen delivery and waste removal look similar. The LUCID study is designed to begin characterising this healthy neighbourhood – establishing what normal variation looks like across individuals and over time.

When neurological disease or disorder begins to develop, brain blood-flow patterns can start to drift away from this healthy zone. Over time, that drift may form a trajectory toward cognitive impairment. By measuring the brain repeatedly, we can begin to understand which underlying changes drive these shifts - and, in the future, map additional “neighbourhoods” associated with different conditions or risk profiles. Combined with subjective reporting, this approach has the potential to make brain health assessment more objective, personalised, and actionable over time.”

The recent funding will enable Connectome to release the product with a limited number of partners and continue development and research to unlock new use cases beyond lifestyle and wearables.