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This startup combines neuroscience and AI to predict consumer spending for the likes of Google and Ikea. Check out the 14-slide pitch deck Neurons used to raise $6 million.
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- Neurons, a startup that predicts consumer behavior with neurology and AI, just raised $6 million.
- The startup collects data on emotions and memory from customers to predict their spending patterns.
- Check out the 14-slide deck the Danish startup used to raise the fresh funds.
A startup that uses a mix of neuroscience and AI to predict consumer behavior has just raised a $6 million seed round.
Denmark-based Neurons trials ads and products on focus groups wired up with brain scanners and eye trackers to collect data on their emotional reactions, memory, and attention to predict what they will buy in the future.
“People’s emotional responses predict their market response,” Neurons’ cofounder and CEO Dr. Thomas Zoëga Ramsøy told Insider. “The business works by using neuroscience tools as the foundation.”
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Neurons measures how consumers feel about certain products — from how much trust they have in a product to how engaged they are by it. The startup tracks eye movements millisecond by millisecond, to gauge how customers react to adverts and products on the screen.
Dr. Ramsøy noted that a “click rate does not always show customer interest” — so the startup’s metrics for engagement are based on a range of factors. Neurons has labs around the world so it can also assess cultural differences in these responses, enabling enterprises to better understand their customer base across geographies.
Based on the datasets collected, Neurons creates a score by which it predicts what items customers will buy down the line. These metrics can also be used to predict how much someone might pay for a product.
This data is then compared to market behaviors to measure real-life accuracy. It claims to have a 95% accuracy rate, and can currently produce a prediction within seconds of interacting with customer data.
Its online platform, called Explore, can be tested on a global sample to collect consumers’ unconscious responses, and its Predict platform estimates user attention and sentiment. The goal is to ultimately “go beyond prediction” and “ask the AI to explain itself,” Dr. Ramsøy added.
The company only collects data from people who are willingly taking part in its studies. Participant data is anonymized, Neurons said. It keeps basic personal details for reimbursement separately which is then discarded once the legal obligation to keep it ceases.
Neurons’ client base, which includes the likes of Google, Twitter, Ikea, and Coca-Cola, can then use this data to tailor their adverts, packaging, and website design to their customers’ interests, and maximize their engagement.
While investors were drawn to the SaaS part of the business, they were more skeptical about the scientific foundation, according to Dr. Ramsøy, who said that the team was looking for VCs with an understanding of that mix.
The round was led by Stockholm-based Fairpoint Capital, a VC firm that has invested in data analytics startups such as Metry and Predge, with Vækstfonden Ventures and private equity firm Finance Zealand also backing the round.
With the cash injection, Neurons will focus on appealing to a mass market by integrating its SaaS tool into platforms such as Adobe and Chrome. It will also establish brand partnerships with large enterprises so it can reach a wider customer base.
Check out the 14-slide deck used to raise the fresh funds.
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