Kneu Health has raised $5.6 million in seed funding, co-led by Oxford Science Enterprises and Cedars-Sinai, with participation from Social Impact Enterprises, JIMCO (Jameel Investment Management Co.), G.K. Goh Ventures, and SXSW London.

The funding will be used to expand Kneu’s footprint across U.S. health systems, grow its clinical data platform, and enhance its monitoring capabilities for Parkinson’s disease and dementia -  two of the world’s fastest-growing neurological conditions.

Founded by Caroline Cake, former CEO of Health Data Research UK, Kneu is building a scalable neurology platform that turns everyday smartphones into clinical-grade diagnostic tools -  helping detect subtle changes in movement, speech, and cognition before they evolve into serious symptoms.

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A New Model for Continuous Neurology

Kneu Health’s approach is deceptively simple yet profound: patients use their smartphones to perform short, daily tasks -  such as tapping patterns, speaking phrases, or reacting to cues -  while the app’s AI translates those micro-signals into digital biomarkers.

These biomarkers are then reviewed by clinicians through a secure portal, allowing neurologists to track disease progression continuously instead of relying on the occasional in-person consultation.

Backed by more than a decade of Oxford research, the system uses machine learning to identify early warning signs of motor and cognitive decline. According to NHS pilot data, Kneu’s platform has reduced emergency hospitalizations, cut waiting times for Parkinson’s patients by nearly 30%, and helped clinicians adjust medications faster and with greater confidence.

Over 1,400 patients across eight NHS Trusts have already participated in live programs, and partnerships with Cedars-Sinai and Mass General Brigham are helping the company expand into the U.S.

The result is not just better care -  it’s a complete redesign of neurology workflow, where the clinic comes to the patient, and data becomes the clinician’s most powerful ally.

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The Macro Context: A Neurological Time Bomb

Neurological diseases are now one of the top global health burdens, projected to affect nearly 200 million people worldwide by 2050. Parkinson’s alone is expected to double in prevalence within the next 25 years.

The economic cost is staggering: the global Parkinson’s care market exceeded $5.1 billion in 2024 and is growing at a CAGR of 9.3%, while dementia-related care costs surpassed $1.3 trillion globally in 2023 -  expected to double by 2035 (World Health Organization).

And yet, the average neurologist wait time in many developed nations exceeds 12 months, while rural patients may go years without follow-up.

That gap -  between disease acceleration and system inertia -  is where Kneu Health is carving out a new category: continuous neurology.

But buried inside Kneu’s model is an even deeper entrepreneurial insight that stretches far beyond healthtech.

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Build for System Trust Before User Growth

When most founders enter a regulated market, they start with product-market fit. Kneu’s team started with a system-trust fit.

They realized that in healthcare, adoption doesn’t scale because the product is good -  it scales because the system feels safe using it.

Rather than chasing consumer downloads or fancy AI hype, Kneu focused on clinical defensibility: securing NHS pilots, building peer-reviewed data, and earning FDA clearance for its smartphone-based tremor measurement before seeking growth.

It’s a subtle but massive inversion of startup logic. In consumer tech, speed beats caution. In regulated industries, trust is traction.

Kneu’s first customers weren’t patients -  they were clinicians and institutions. By building technology that fits into existing workflows instead of disrupting them, Kneu unlocked distribution through validation. That’s how it got Oxford Science Enterprises and Cedars-Sinai on board.

For founders, the message is clear: if you build in a domain governed by trust -  medicine, finance, climate, data -  your fastest route to scale is credibility, not virality. Invest early in the evidence that regulators, enterprise partners, and users need to believe you belong.

That’s why this $5.6M round isn’t just capital -  it’s a certification of Kneu’s long game: slow, precise, credible innovation that compounds over time.

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Data-Driven Neurology Is a $40 Billion Opportunity

Kneu sits in the middle of three converging markets -  and each is exploding.

• Digital biomarkers market: valued at $2.2 billion in 2023, projected to reach $16.7 billion by 2032 at a 25.1% CAGR (GlobalData).
  
• Remote patient monitoring (RPM): currently worth $12 billion, expected to hit $40.4 billion by 2030 (Allied Market Research).
  
• Neurotechnology & brain health: forecast to reach $18 billion by 2030, with rising investment in cognitive analytics, mobile diagnostics, and mental performance tools.
  

Within this web of growth, Kneu’s smartphone-first model offers something uniquely defensible -  it doesn’t rely on wearables, proprietary sensors, or expensive hardware. Any patient, anywhere, with a smartphone can be continuously monitored. That scalability is both economic and ethical.

As digital biomarkers become a key part of clinical trials, pharma partnerships, and national health systems, platforms like Kneu will become the connective tissue between patient behavior and medical intervention.

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Why This Round Matters

With $5.6 million secured, Kneu Health plans to:

1. Expand U.S. clinical programs with Cedars-Sinai and TMC Innovation Hub.
   
2. Enhance AI models to improve accuracy in detecting cognitive changes linked to dementia.
   
3. Deepen NHS partnerships and publish new real-world outcome data for Parkinson’s.
   
4. Advance regulatory clearances in new markets and build reimbursement pathways.
   
5. Invest in clinician-centric design, ensuring that doctors save time, not lose it.
   

This investment also allows Kneu to grow its multidisciplinary team -  spanning neuroscience, data ethics, software engineering, and healthcare economics -  to continue translating its Oxford research heritage into scalable global impact.

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The Road Ahead

Kneu’s long-term vision is to make neurological monitoring invisible -  turning millions of smartphones into decentralized clinical sensors that feed secure, anonymized insights into health systems.

If successful, it could mark the beginning of a new clinical paradigm where neurodegenerative diseases are managed before they disable, predicted before they appear, and understood at population scale.

In an era defined by aging populations and overburdened clinicians, Kneu isn’t just building a better app -  it’s building the foundation for preventive neurology, where continuous measurement becomes the new medicine.

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