Sonera Attracts $11 Million in Seed Funding

Sonera has exited stealth, having gained $11 million in seed funding led by Amplify Partners with participation from Abstract Ventures and existing investors. This latest funding brings total capital raised to $20 million from investors including Spark Capital; Material Impact; Boom Capital; angel investor Josh Duyan, CTRL-Labs CSO and co-founder; and others.
 
The company plans to use the funding to make neural data accessible for various applications, from personal computing and smart apparel to healthcare and neurotherapeutics.
 
Sonera has developed a new sensing modality that non-invasively measures magnetic fields generated by the body, in contrast with the electrical sensing techniques currently used. This proprietary technology holds the key to making brain activity as easy to measure as heart rate, temperature, and other physiological signals, and enabling data-backed insights related to movement, health, thoughts, and emotions.
 
“The tools we have today for measuring neural activity are either rudimentary or inaccessible, and that’s prevented us from gathering critical information about our brains and bodies,” Sonera Co-Founder/CEO Nishita Deka said. “The only way to solve this is by developing high-performance sensors that are commercially viable, which is the goal of our work at Sonera. My hope is that our approach, which is to measure biomagnetic signals on a chip, will let us achieve universal access to neural data and generate insights that will impact both consumer and clinical applications. Knowing how ambitious and challenging this goal is, I’m grateful and excited to have support from investors who believe in our mission.”
 
The first application of Sonera’s technology is the S1 chip for muscle sensing, which is poised to enable a new class of consumer wearables and experiences based on muscle activity. This approach, which measures magnetic fields produced by the electrical currents from neural activity, eliminates the need for direct skin contact while still measuring high-fidelity signals – a huge step up from the performance and usability limitations of electrical sensors. The S1 chip will enable use cases including advanced prosthetics control, continuous monitoring of neuromuscular conditions, discovery of disease biomarkers, and sport performance tracking, according to the company.
 
“Over the past decade we’ve seen an explosion of wearables flood the consumer market,” stated Mike Dauber, general partner at Amplify Partners. “Sonera is developing an entirely new sensing modality that enables numerous applications that have been out of reach until now. We’re excited to partner with Nishita and Dom to help make their vision a reality—one that we will all benefit tremendously from.”
 
“Sonera’s work is an entirely new approach to sensing the brain and body,” Spark Capital General Partner Nabeel Hyatt said. “They had the clarity to acknowledge the past approaches were not going to work, and the inspiration to develop a novel sensor with massive potential. We are proud to support them as they unlock the edges of neuroscience.”
 
Sonera’s sensing technology non-invasively detects magnetic signals generated by neural activity.