Startups to Watch: Moment AI

Editor’s note: This is one of our Startups to Watch of 2022. See the rest here.

After having multiple seizures on a plane, Megan Gray received an epilepsy diagnosis — and instructions to stop driving her car because of the risk. That led the former Google project manager to conceive Moment AI, an artificial intelligence-based tech for vulnerable drivers.

The Arlington automotive safety startup partnered in early 2021 with George Washington University to develop its software. It works to detect signs of health problems, from seizures to strokes to heart attacks to fatigue, and reduce car crashes for vulnerable populations, including the elderly, individuals with existing conditions and those under high stress.

The business originated in Gray’s living room, where she created her proof of concept. And she paid for the parts and initial operating expenses with money she won playing poker, she said. Soon, she landed her first $25,000 investment from a Memphis, Tennessee-based accelerator.

Before long, she secured backing from SoftBank Investment Advisers and others. She’s planning to raise roughly $2.5 million to $4 million in VC funding this year to grow her 12-person team by another 10 or more employees, with positions in engineering, business development and marketing. That capital will also help the business deliver new autonomous vehicles ready to be tested on Virginia’s roads in the spring.

In the first quarter of 2022, Gray said, Moment AI plans to extend its contract with GWU through 2026 and establish an additional office in another market.

A closer look