For the last two years, the team at Beacon Biosignals has been working to find the right niche for their platform — an AI software tool that pairs with electroencephalography (EEG), a measurement of the brain's electrical activity, to discover biomarkers of neurological disease.
Already, the Boston startup had gained traction with major partners including Novartis AG (NYSE: NVS), Praxis Precision Medicines Inc. (Nasdaq: PRAX), Cyclerion Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq: CYCN) and Idorsia. Now, infused with a $27 million Series A round led by General Catalyst with participation from noted life sciences investor Casdin Capital, Beacon is planning to capitalize on the resurgence in neuroscience across the biotech field.
"It's sort of a renaissance for neuroscience," said Jacob Donoghue, Beacon's CEO and co-founder. "Treatment for neurological and psychiatric disease is finally revived. It seems like it ebbs and flows, and this feels like the right time for what we're doing to have an actual impact."
Beacon's platform stems from Donoghue's Ph.D. and M.D. research at MIT and Harvard Medical School, respectively, as well as the open-source background of his co-founder and chief technological officer, Jarrett Revels. The tool takes EEG data and analyzes it to determine which patients might be at higher risks for neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, or even early death based on their "brain age." The goal is to determine which patients are good candidates for experimental medicines and recruit them to clinical trials.
Beacon's entire team comes from a highly scientific background: Of the 23 people working at the startup, Donoghue said, 15 have Ph.D.s, and seven have M.D.s.
"[We want to] demonstrate the efficacy of quantitative EEG endpoints — quantitative biomarkers to serve as endpoints for novel therapies. We have a data science platform that we're using to speed up our hypothesis for solution time to be able to ask more questions, faster, of the data," Donoghue said. "One of our core metrics of success will be the number of discoveries we're able to make."
The team has been hybrid since before the Covid-19 pandemic and is based around the U.S., with "hubs" in Boston, San Francisco and New York City. Five Beacon employees are based in Massachusetts.
With the $27 million Series A round, Donoghue hopes to expand to about 40 full-time employees with a mix of software and clinical expertise.
Also investing in the round is angel investor Andy Beck, CEO of Boston-based PathAI, which has a similar value proposition: PathAI applies artificial intelligence and machine learning to cellular and tissue patterns to find biomarkers. Beck is joining Beacon's board in concert with the investment.
Robin Washington, formerly the chief financial officer at Gilead, is also joining the board. Donoghue noted that Washington is know for taking few, but high-powered, board seats: She currently sits on the boards of Alphabet, Salesforce and Honeywell.
