neuroClues and the Quiet Revolution in Neurological Diagnostics
A €10 million Series A round rarely tells the whole story. The capital matters, yes – but the mechanism behind it matters more. When neuroClues announced its latest funding on April 7, 2026, the headline figure obscured something more consequential: a Franco-Belgian medtech startup had moved from laboratory prototype to CE-marked medical device in under five years, and was now deploying across European hospitals with a normative database project involving 25,000 participants.
The round, led by Teampact Ventures, White Fund, and the EIC Fund (European Innovation Council), brings neuroClues' total capital raised to €25 million, including non-dilutive funding. Existing investors InvestBW, Leansquare, and Wallonie Entreprendre participated, alongside strategic support from Olivier Legrain, Chairman and CEO of IBA.
But the funding is a lagging indicator. The leading indicators – CE certification achieved in five months, over 30 devices deployed across seven European countries, integration into the Paris Brain Institute's clinical cohorts – suggest a company that has solved the harder problem: translating neuroscience research into clinical workflow.
The Diagnostic Gap
The clinical context frames the urgency. According to neuroClues' investor materials, neurodegenerative diseases affect one in three people during their lifetime. The number of Parkinson's patients worldwide is projected to double to 13 million by 2040. And here is the constraint that matters: approximately one in five patients is still misdiagnosed.
By the time correct diagnosis occurs, irreversible brain damage has already taken hold – 65% of affected neurons lost. The diagnostic tools available to most neurologists remain remarkably primitive. The "follow my finger" test – a subjective clinical observation with no quantitative output – remains standard practice.
Advanced imaging technologies exist but carry significant limitations: expensive, not widely accessible, and often unable to detect abnormalities at early disease stages. This is the gap neuroClues targets. Not with another imaging modality, but with something more fundamental: eye movement biomarkers.
The Technical Architecture
The science behind eye tracking for neurological assessment is not new. As reported by the European Commission's EISMEA, the approach draws on more than 100,000 scientific publications and sixty years of research. Eye movement is the fastest in the human body – three movements per second – and analyzing these movements can detect Parkinson's disease up to five years before the first visible symptoms, according to research co-authored by neuroClues co-founder Pierre Pouget in the journal Brain in 2021.
What neuroClues has built is the translation layer: a compact, portable, CE-marked Class IIa medical device that captures high-speed infrared images of each eye as patients perform simple visual tasks. Proprietary AI algorithms then compute objective, reproducible biomarkers. The company describes the design as "constraint-free, plug-and-play" – results delivered within minutes, with remote interpretation possible.
The intellectual property portfolio reflects the integration challenge: two hardware patents covering product envelope and working principle, two embedded electronics patents, one AI patent covering video analysis principles, one paradigm patent, four trademarks, and two design patents. Video eye tracking itself dates to the 1960s, providing freedom to operate on core principles while the company's patents protect the clinical implementation.
The Deployment Pathway
CE certification arrived in January 2025 – achieved in five months by integrating European Medical Device Regulation (MDR) requirements from initial product design. Within months, over 30 devices were deployed across France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, in university hospitals, private neurology practices, and research centers.
The institutional milestones compound the commercial traction. Integration into the Paris Brain Institute's (ICM) clinical cohorts includes the Iceberg study on Parkinson's disease. Selection for a mega-cohort of 25,000 participants will develop the first large-scale normative database of oculomotor biomarkers – a dataset that makes each deployed device more intelligent.
Bpifrance's National Prevention Accelerator selected neuroClues for commercialization support. The company participated in an official French presidential delegation to India, establishing partnerships with institutions including AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences).
The commercial team is scaling accordingly. Bart Stulens, former VP of Neuromodulation EMEA at Medtronic, joined as Chief Commercial Officer. Recruitment is underway in France, with distributor agreements signed or under discussion across the EMEA region.
The Funding Structure
The €10 million Series A represents institutional validation, but the capital stack reveals a more nuanced strategy. The EIC Fund's participation continues a relationship that began in December 2022, when neuroClues received blended funding including a €2.5 million grant and up to €9 million in equity under the EIC Accelerator program.
The company has also opened a limited tranche of up to €1.5 million on LITA, the European impact investment platform, enabling individual investors to participate under the same terms as institutional investors. This hybrid approach – institutional lead, public innovation funding, and citizen investment – reflects a capital formation strategy increasingly common among European deep tech companies navigating the continent's fragmented funding landscape.
"This Series A validates our technology and our ability to execute. CE certification in five months. First commercial deployments within weeks. A normative database project with 25,000 participants."
Antoine Pouppez, CEO
The Broader Pattern
neuroClues illustrates a template worth tracking: European deep tech companies that leverage the continent's regulatory framework as a competitive advantage rather than a constraint. The MDR pathway, often criticized for its complexity, becomes a moat when navigated efficiently. The EIC Accelerator provides patient capital that bridges the valley of death between research and commercialization.
Cross-border deployment – seven countries within months of certification – demonstrates the single market functioning as intended. The company's dual headquarters – manufacturing in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, and an office at iPEPS-ICM, the Paris Brain Institute's incubator – reflects the Franco-Belgian research axis that produced the founding team.
Pierre Daye earned his PhD at UCLouvain working on eye and head coordination modeling. Pierre Pouget directs neuroscientific research at CNRS. Antoine Pouppez brought the commercialization expertise from IBA. The team of approximately 20 employees spans both locations, with the Paris presence providing direct access to clinical research infrastructure and the Belgian headquarters housing manufacturing capabilities.
What This Enables
The clinical utility begins with differential diagnosis of Parkinsonian syndromes – helping neurologists distinguish Parkinson's disease from atypical Parkinsonisms with non-invasive, quick, and reproducible biomarkers. As the platform gathers clinical data at scale, the company aims to support identification of specific conditions: early signs of Alzheimer's, concussion-related impairments, and other neurological anomalies currently diagnosed through subjective observation.
The normative database project represents the strategic asset. With 25,000 participants, neuroClues will establish baseline oculomotor biomarkers against which individual patients can be compared. Each device deployed contributes data that improves the platform's diagnostic precision – a network effect in medical diagnostics.
The company's stated goal: support 10 million patients by 2032.
Implications
The neuroClues trajectory offers several signals for those tracking European health technology:
- Regulatory-first design can compress certification timelines dramatically – five months for CE marking suggests MDR compliance integrated from initial product architecture.
- Public-private capital stacks combining EIC funding, regional investment, and institutional venture capital provide runway for deep tech development cycles.
- Data network effects in medical devices create defensibility that hardware alone cannot provide – the normative database becomes the competitive moat.
- Cross-border deployment within the EU single market remains viable for medical devices when regulatory strategy is executed efficiently.
The question is whether this model scales – whether other European deep tech companies can replicate the pathway from research institution to clinical deployment within similar timeframes. The answer will shape Europe's position in the next generation of medical diagnostics.
The intersection of AI, healthcare, and European regulatory frameworks will be a central theme at Human x AI Europe in Vienna on May 19. For those tracking how deep tech translates into clinical reality – and what that means for policy, investment, and patient outcomes – the conversation continues there.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is neuroClues and what does its device do?
A: neuroClues is a Franco-Belgian medtech startup that has developed a portable, CE-marked Class IIa medical device that records and analyzes eye movements to extract objective neurological biomarkers. The device supports clinicians in diagnosing and monitoring neurological disorders like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.
Q: How much funding has neuroClues raised in total?
A: neuroClues has raised €25 million in total capital, including the €10 million Series A announced in April 2026, previous rounds totaling approximately €15 million, and non-dilutive funding from sources including a €2.5 million EIC Accelerator grant.
Q: How early can neuroClues detect Parkinson's disease?
A: According to research co-authored by neuroClues co-founder Pierre Pouget and published in the journal Brain in 2021, eye movement analysis can detect Parkinson's disease up to five years before the first visible symptoms appear.
Q: Where is neuroClues' device currently deployed?
A: As of April 2026, over 30 devices have been deployed across France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, in university hospitals, private neurology practices, and research centers.
Q: What is the normative database project neuroClues is developing?
A: neuroClues is building the first large-scale normative database of oculomotor biomarkers with 25,000 participants. This database will establish baseline eye movement patterns against which individual patients can be compared for diagnostic purposes.
Q: Who are the lead investors in neuroClues' Series A round?
A: The €10 million Series A was led by Teampact Ventures, White Fund, and the EIC Fund (European Innovation Council), with participation from existing investors InvestBW, Leansquare, and Wallonie Entreprendre.