The U.S.-based arm of LG Electronics has selected two Bay Area startups — Digbi Health and NeuroTrainer — as top 10 finalists for an innovation competition that will open up business opportunities with the global hardware and technology giant.
Last fall, LG launched a North American innovation center based in Santa Clara that it calls LG NOVA, and the company subsequently announced a program called "Mission for the Future" to look for emerging businesses "that will not just improve quality of life, but change it for the better," according to its website.
The top 10 finalists were narrowed down from an initial batch of 50 companies which were selected from more than 1,300 applications, LG said in a press release on Sept. 7.
Each finalist received a $100,000 award when the top 20 were announced in June, and the top 10 will now be eligible "for potential investment from LG and other investors within LG NOVA ecosystem to develop impactful solutions for people, communities and the planet," last week's press release said.
LG NOVA picked companies working in three broad categories: digital health, electric mobility and the metaverse.
Mountain View-based Digbi Health addresses chronic health conditions by creating personalized health and lifestyle plans by using at-home DNA and gut tests. Digbi Health was founded in 2018 by CEO Ranjan Sinha and Scott Levy, and has raised $13.4 million through a Series A round, according to PitchBook.
And San Francisco-based NeuroTrainer describes itself as a "Mental Fitness system that enables athletes to achieve new levels of human performance with cognitive training" by combining "neuroscience, sports science and immersive media to build training, measurement and neuro-analytics where athletes improve focus, decision speed, and situational awareness," according to its website.
It delivers its training programs via virtual reality headsets.
NeuroTrainer is led by CEO Noah Rolland. It was founded in 2014 by Jeffrey Nyquist and has raised $4 million through a seed round, as well as an addition $1.27 million from grants and a PPP loan, according to PitchBook.
