A Portuguese startup has invested about $2.5 million to create a “mind gym.”

There’s a Portuguese startup that combines virtual reality and artificial intelligence to create a “mind gym.”

GED Ventures Portugal has invested around €2.5 million in Virtuleap, a healthtech and EdTech startup, which has developed a library of virtual reality games to assess and train a range of cognitive skills, including memory. “With this data available on the platform, it is possible to provide essential clinical results for examining and characterizing brain health,” says GED Ventures.

“GED Ventures Portugal leads this round of investment and reinforces its commitment to #Tech4Purpose,” the company says.

GED is an international financial group with a presence in Europe, the USA and South America, currently managing more than €1 billion of assets in the areas of projects, private equity and infrastructure, based on the current environmental, social and governance ethos. Since its inception and has been integrated at all times into the life cycle of its funds.

“This investment in VituLeap reflects the strategy adopted to invest in technology with a direct impact on people’s mental health, providing a better quality of life. “At this meeting between technology and well-being, we are building a new future in mental health that is accessible to everyone,” explains Baby Star. Marquez, partner and board member of GED Ventures Portugal, said in the statement.

“These short, intense and fun games were developed by neuroscientists and designed as translations of neuropsychological assessment tools. The collected data is then analyzed by AI learning tools,” the company reveals, adding that “Enhance VR”, developed by Virtuleap, aims to become an accessible “brain gym” and “serve, in the future, as a treatment for overcoming learning challenges such as ADHD and other cognitive disorders.”

These exercises are divided into seven cognitive categories: memory, attention, information processing, spatial orientation, cognitive flexibility and problem solving, motor control and spatial orientation, explains GED Ventures.

“The company is currently developing a second product, Cogniclear VR, which it plans to launch in 2024. It is a virtual reality-based cognitive screening tool, which is being jointly designed with partners such as Lusíadas Saúde and Roche Portugal, in early 2020.” Detect a potential cognitive disorder (eg Alzheimer’s disease), to allow early intervention, and promote better health outcomes.

For Amir Bozourzadeh, CEO and co-founder of Virtuleap, mentioned in the note, this investment “will allow us to accelerate the R&D and commercialization of our cognitive VR solutions that will help, in schools, businesses and homes, among others, to combat this ‘cognitive crisis’.” “.

“Within the design of #Tech4Purpose, GED Ventures Portugal aims to support technologies capable of transforming the world, that promote sustainability and capable of leaving a viable and promising legacy for future generations,” according to the statement.