London-based healthtech startup CoMind has raised a $60m funding round backed by Plural.
Founded by a teenage James Dacombe in 2018, CoMind has developed a device capable of monitoring blood flow and pressure in the brain, using low-powered infrared lasers to avoid having to puncture the skull.
Plural, the early-stage investment firm based in London and Tallinn, led the round. Taavet Hinrikus, cofounder of fintech Wise and partner at Plural, has joined the startup's board this round. He tells the Financial Times Dacombe is a “generational founder” who has built an “amazing product”.
CoMind is currently recruiting participants in the US for its third clinical trial to help secure approval from the US Food and Drug Administration. If adopted more widely, CoMind’s tech promises to help reduce costs while improving outcomes for patients undergoing procedures.
Other participants in the round included Phoenix Court, Octopus Ventures, Crane Venture Partners, Backed VC and Entrepreneurs First. The round takes the startup’s total funding to $102.5m.
Dacombe tells the Financial Times that CoMind wants brain monitoring “to become as common as having your blood pressure taken.” Its device simultaneously measures cerebral blood flow, intracranial pressure and autoregulation, which are all important to monitor in the case of a traumatic brain injury.
Dacombe is also the founder of semiconductor manufacturing startup Flux Computing.
