BrainSight AI: ET Startup Awards 2024 | Best Innovator: BrainSight AI forces a rethink

Innovation in the Mental health and the space of neurology has enormous potential to transform lives, ET Startup Awards The 2024 jury said, focusing on BrainSight Artificial Intelligence as the winner in the Best Innovator category. While space technology startup SatSure was in the running, the potential use of artificial intelligence in complex reading Magnetic resonance imaging and its ultimate impact on humans tilted the jury toward BrainSight AI.

“The Best Innovator category gives you an insight into the dazzling ideas that entrepreneurs are pursuing… It makes you feel like the world is going to be a better place,” said Mithun Sacheti, jury member and founder of Caratlane.

Founded in 2020, when the entire healthcare sector was focused on fighting the pandemic, the startup struggled to convince hospitals to let it test its hypothesis and explain the software’s potential benefits to the country’s top neurologists.

“When we started this company, the idea was to put human brain research into practice, but today, the recognition we have received from The Economic Times shows that the idea has grown much bigger than the vision we started with,” said Laina Emmanuel, co-founder of BrainSight AI. Things are changing, as more and more doctors are opening up to using these services and specialist departments in large hospitals are eager to try out the company’s systems, Emmanuel said.

From a business perspective, things seem to have turned around for this young startup. After securing a clinical license earlier this year, the Bengaluru-based startup is signing commercial contracts with nine major hospital chains and is in talks with two dozen others.

Shubman Gill, Indian cricketer and jury member, while speaking about BrainSight AI, said that there were a lot of discussions in the Best Innovator category and they specifically talked about BrainSight AI.

“It was very inspiring to see what people are doing, especially in that space (mental health), to be able to help the country and uplift everyone,” she said.

Globally, they have a competitor in Australia operating in a similar space, but the founders are working hard to take this solution outside India. Emmanuel said hospitals in countries like Nepal and Africa have reached out to the startup to see the results and analytics. They are also tapping into developed markets like the US and Dubai to test their software.

“We had a dedicated team working to secure grants that helped us survive all these years. Now that commercial implementation is underway, we believe we have reached a turning point and the business will grow from here,” said Emmanuel.

The first test results look promising and, in addition to the usual neuroscience teams, BrainSight AI is receiving many requests from the psychiatry departments of these hospitals for the implementation of its solution. For Emmanuel, this is a great opportunity that is opening up and that allows the small team of 32 people at BrainSight AI to increasingly use artificial intelligence to read brain scans and help doctors to better and more efficiently analyse patients.

---

Other contenders

Agnit Semiconductors

Innovations in Voxelgrids

Voxelgrids designs, manufactures and sells locally made MRI machines, allowing users to save on costs. The company’s ability to design and assemble the machine entirely in India helps keep its price affordable.

SatSure Analysis

SatSure provides actionable intelligence using satellite imagery for industries such as agriculture, banking, insurance, utilities and aviation.

Ethereal machines

Manufactures five-axis computer numerical control (CNC) machines, which are used for contract manufacturing in industries such as aerospace, defense and consumer electronics.