Where is Hemispheric headquartered?

Hemispheric is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel. The company has a team of 101-500 people.

What does Hemispheric do?

Hemispheric operates in the AI in Healthcare sector. Hemispheric is a NeuroAI company building a frontier foundation model (Descartes) to decode human brain activity from non-invasive EEG for diagnosing and treating neurological and psychiatric disorders. First frontier NeuroAI foundation model that decodes non-invasive brain activity to provide objective, quantitative brain health diagnostics — akin to a blood test for the brain — replacing subjective questionnaires and behavioral observations

When was Hemispheric founded?

Hemispheric was founded in 2019. It is based in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Who is the CEO of Hemispheric?

Hagai Lalazar is the CEO of Hemispheric. The company was founded in 2019.

Where is Hemispheric located?

Hemispheric is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel.

What funding stage is Hemispheric at?

Hemispheric is currently at the Growth Stage stage.

How many employees does Hemispheric have?

Hemispheric has approximately 101-500 employees.

Hemispheric

Category: AI in Healthcare

Hemispheric is a NeuroAI company building a frontier foundation model (Descartes) to decode human brain activity from non-invasive EEG for diagnosing and treating neurological and psychiatric disorders. Hemispheric was founded in 2019. The company is led by Hagai Lalazar. Based in Tel Aviv, Israel. Team size: 101-500. Total funding raised: $52M. Latest round: Series A. Key investors include Hanaco Ventures, Arkin Capital, OurCrowd, Artofin VC, OneMind/Awareness Capital, Protocol Labs, L Catterton, Howard Morgan, Naomi Azrieli, Yasmin Lukatz, Scott Belsky.

Founded: 2019
Headquarters: Tel Aviv, Israel
Team size: 101-500
Total funding: $52M

Value proposition

First frontier NeuroAI foundation model that decodes non-invasive brain activity to provide objective, quantitative brain health diagnostics — akin to a blood test for the brain — replacing subjective questionnaires and behavioral observations

Products and solutions

Descartes — a 6-billion-parameter NeuroAI foundation model trained on 250,000+ hours of multimodal EEG and behavioral data from 100,000+ participants, dry-electrode EEG headset for 15-minute non-invasive brain assessment, AI-powered diagnostic platform for PTSD, mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, and Alzheimer's disease

Unique value

The only NeuroAI company combining a 6B-parameter foundation model trained on 250K+ hours of proprietary brain data with a non-invasive, low-cost EEG headset to deliver objective brain diagnostics at scale, built by the co-inventor of Apple's FaceID and a computational neuroscientist

Target customer

Healthcare organizations, hospitals, mental health clinics, psychologists' offices, pharmaceutical companies, government agencies, and researchers

Industries served

Healthcare (neurology, psychiatry, mental health), Pharmaceuticals (clinical trials, drug development), Government (defense, veterans' health), Research

Technology advantage

6-billion-parameter Descartes NeuroAI foundation model trained on one of the world's largest proprietary brain-activity datasets (250K+ hours, 100K+ participants); proprietary data collection labs and AI training infrastructure built specifically for neural data; dry-electrode EEG headset requiring no surgery or invasive procedures; team of 112 with expertise spanning computational neuroscience, AI, and medical imaging; co-founders with Apple FaceID/Vision Pro and computational neuroscience pedigree

How they differentiate

Unlike invasive brain-computer interfaces (Neuralink, Synchron) that require surgery, Hemispheric uses a non-invasive dry-electrode EEG headset. Unlike traditional EEG diagnostic tools, Hemispheric has built a frontier foundation model (Descartes) trained on massive proprietary data, enabling it to generalize across individuals and conditions. The company's bet is that AI models trained on large-scale data, not better hardware, will unlock precision brain diagnostics.

Main competitors

Synchron (invasive BCI with Chiral foundation model), Neuralink (invasive BCI), Kernel (non-invasive EEG/neuroimaging), BrainKey (AI brain scan analysis), Coherence Neuro (cancer-detecting brain implants)

Key partnerships

Working with U.S. FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health, partnerships with government agencies and pharmaceutical companies for clinical applications

Notable customers

Government agencies (undisclosed), pharmaceutical companies (undisclosed), healthcare organizations (undisclosed)

Major milestones

2019-2020: Company founded by Hagai Lalazar and Gidi Littwin, 2020-2026: Six years in stealth building Descartes model, collecting data from 100K+ participants across Asia, Tel Aviv, and Boston, Jul 2026: Emerged from stealth with $52M funding and launch of Descartes, 2027 (planned): Submit first PTSD diagnostic product to FDA for approval, 2027 (planned): Public rollout of PTSD product

Growth metrics

112 employees; 250,000+ hours of brain data; 100,000+ research participants; 6-billion-parameter model

Market positioning

First-mover in the frontier NeuroAI foundation model space for non-invasive brain diagnostics; positioned as the "foundation model for the human brain" analogous to LLMs for text or vision models for images

Geographic focus

Global (HQ in Israel, operations in US and Asia, pursuing FDA approval in US and regulatory approvals in Europe)

Patents and IP

Proprietary data collection infrastructure, model training systems designed for neural data, and dry-electrode EEG headset technology (specific patents not publicly detailed)

About Hagai Lalazar

Computational neuroscientist with 25+ years in scientific research; Post-doctoral Researcher at Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, Columbia University; PhD from Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Official website: https://www.hemispheric.ai