BrainCheck has secured $13 million in Series A financing to expand its AI-enabled cognitive assessment platform across U.S. healthcare systems. The round was led by Next Coast Ventures, with participation from S3 Ventures and UPMC Enterprises. The company plans to deepen workflow integration, advance longitudinal patient monitoring, and broaden its reach across primary care and specialty settings.
The new capital also supports BrainCheck's growing partnerships with collaborative care organizations. These partnerships are designed to extend the platform beyond assessment into structured care delivery, helping practices that lack the staffing or infrastructure to manage cognitive health on their own.
As populations age, the distance between cognitive impairment and formal diagnosis continues to widen. Primary care clinicians are stretched thin. They often lack the time, staffing, and systems to monitor cognitive health over time, even as demand accelerates and new therapies change what early intervention can look like.
Blood-based biomarkers and emerging treatments are transforming the care pathway. Standardized digital cognitive assessment is increasingly the starting point of this new continuum, guiding risk stratification, informing referrals, and enabling structured follow-up at scale.
Value-based care models are accelerating this shift. As accountability for cognitive outcomes moves toward accountable care organizations and risk-bearing providers, the need for repeatable, objective assessment tools is becoming a practical operational requirement, not just a clinical preference.
"Cognitive health is becoming a greater priority across the healthcare system, and the infrastructure supporting it must evolve as well," said Mike Smerklo, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Next Coast Ventures. "BrainCheck is contributing to that evolution by bringing greater consistency, objectivity, and longitudinal insight into cognitive care. We're excited to support the company's next phase of growth."
BrainCheck will direct the Series A capital toward expanding its enterprise cognitive care infrastructure. That includes deeper integration with clinical workflows and EHR systems, population-scale deployment across both primary care and specialty environments, and further development of AI-assisted tools built for value-based and risk-bearing care models.
The goal, according to CEO Chris Loughlin, is to reduce friction without shifting clinical authority. "This capital allows us to continue building tools and workflows that fit how clinicians actually practice," he said. "We are focused on reducing friction in cognitive assessment, supporting longitudinal care, and using AI responsibly to assist, never replace, clinical decision-making."
BrainCheck is a clinically validated digital platform for cognitive assessment and care. Its flagship product, BrainCheck Assess™, holds FDA Class II clearance as a digital cognitive assessment tool. The platform offers 29 validated cognitive screeners and care planning tools, all designed for standardized, repeatable measurement and longitudinal tracking.
Providers across primary care, neurology, and psychiatry use the platform to assess and monitor cognitive function across a range of conditions. The primary focus is mild cognitive impairment and dementia-related diseases, including Alzheimer's. Testing protocols are customizable and available in English and Spanish.
The company is used by more than 500 healthcare organizations nationwide, including Bon Secours, UPMC, and Springfield Clinic, as well as 46 research hospitals such as the University of Texas at Austin and Stanford University. Clinicians have completed over 640,000 cognitive assessments and 14,000 care plans through the platform to date.
"Accountable Care Organizations and value-based care models are increasingly responsible for identifying cognitive impairment earlier and managing it longitudinally across large patient populations," said Stephen Bekanich, M.D., Chief Medical Officer of BrainCheck. "We are seeing the emergence of collaborative care structures designed to support that accountability. BrainCheck provides the standardized, scalable infrastructure that enables these models to operate effectively."
UPMC Enterprises brings more than financial backing to this round. The venture and commercialization arm of UPMC has been evaluating BrainCheck clinically for several years. "UPMC clinicians have been evaluating BrainCheck for several years and have seen firsthand how standardized digital cognitive assessment can support them in real-world practice," said Adele Towers, M.D., M.P.H., UPMC geriatrician and senior clinical advisor to UPMC Enterprises. "We look forward to our continued engagement with BrainCheck and bringing it to more clinicians supporting patients who could benefit from earlier detection, long-term monitoring, and scalable cognitive care within and beyond our health system."
Next Coast Ventures led the round, with S3 Ventures also participating. All three investors bring healthcare and technology experience relevant to BrainCheck's growth trajectory.
