Following interview with Faviola Brugger – Dadis from NeuroReality B.V. shows a success story that started at the Netherlands India Business Meet (NIBM) 2017.
1. What is your startup about? NeuroReality aims to change the way people approach cognitive training and rehabilitation. Utilizing a powerful combination of scientific research and gamification, our mission is to improve the lives of individuals with cognitive problems by offering effective solutions that are accessible, fun, and interactive via virtual reality (VR). NeuroReality provides VR games that are intended to train a variety of cognitive skills such as: calculation, attention, memory, visuospatial abilities, executive functions, and reaction time. Each game is tailored to fit the user’s abilities, helping individuals stay challenged while still allowing those with severe cognitive impairment to enjoy their experience. NeuroReality also has a collaborative research initiative with the VU University Amsterdam and the Game Cella Lab, which provides evidence regarding the benefits of using our VR games with stroke survivors.
2. Who did you connect with? One of the keynote speakers of last year’s NIBM. His name is Simanta Das and he is one of the founding partners of Stahlmarg B.V., a company focused on “developing socio-economic healthcare & education eco-systems by bringing sustainability concepts, technology, knowledge and capital together.”
3. What benefit did networking at our event result in? Attending NIBM was actually life changing for me. I had hoped that networking would result in a few connections that might be valuable to my PhD research, but I did not realize that I would end up with over €1 Million in funding to create a startup company as a spin-off from that research. You never know where and when you will get your ‘big break’. Following NIBM, I presented Stahlmarg with a business proposal. They provided me with invaluable mentoring and grooming that refined the proposal into a multi-phase plan for my business. After several months of negotiations and a great deal of tenacity, I entered into an agreement with a subsidiary of Stahlmarg to fund the multi-phase plan.
4. Where are you now in your startup development stage? Although we are still in early stages of development, NeuroReality has grown quickly over the past year, and currently we employ 6 individuals from a variety of professional backgrounds including: business, neuroscience, game development, 3D modeling, data analytics, marketing, and consumer science. We have nearly completed our Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and have conducted pilot tests to validate our VR software. We anticipate that we will apply for a CE marking in the first quarter of 2019, and are hoping to release the product later in the year following further software validation and scientific testing.
