NextSense Raises $16M to Bring EEG-Powered Smartbuds to Consumer Brain Health

The global wellness industry has spent the last decade tracking steps, calories, heart rate and stress. But one metric remains stubbornly opaque to consumers: brain activity. Mountain View–based startup NextSense believes this missing layer is the next frontier of personal health and investors agree.

The company has raised a $16 million Series A round, led by Ascension Ventures with participation from Satori Neuro, Corundum Neuroscience Fund (CNS) and individual backers including Stanford neuroscientist David Eagleman, Wellville founder Esther Dyson and former Google VP Bradley Horowitz.

The new funding will accelerate the launch of NextSense Smartbuds, a first-of-its-kind consumer EEG wearable designed to give people clinical-grade sleep insights and eventually, real-time tools to improve focus, relaxation and deep sleep.

A New Category: EEG Wearables for Everyday Brain Health

While most wellness devices rely on heart rate or movement sensors, NextSense’s Smartbuds measure electroencephalography (EEG), the gold standard for understanding sleep depth, brain rhythms and cognitive states.

The company says its mission is simple: to make brain health understandable, accessible and actionable for everyone.

According to the company’s vision, restoring energy and emotional balance starts with high-quality sleep and that is the initial target for Smartbuds. The earbuds combine a soft, ultra-comfortable form factor with sensors capable of capturing brain activity throughout the night. The device aims to provide the same level of insight typically restricted to clinical sleep labs, but from the comfort of a pillow.

How Smartbuds Work: EEG Meets Personalized Audio!

NextSense Smartbuds use a combination of EEG sensing, sleep-stage analysis and brain-responsive audio, packaged into a wireless earbud form factor.

The earbuds track sleep quality with clinical accuracy and then use personalized audio stimulation to help users reach more restorative rest. According to early users cited by the company, the auditory algorithms of the buds can boost slow-wave sleep which is the deepest, most restorative stage by up to 50%.

Upcoming modes will include:

• Relax Mode: audio that adapts in real time as EEG signals detect calmer brain states.
• Focus Mode: audio calibrated to help maintain attentional rhythms during work sessions.

These experiences are delivered through closed-loop algorithms, meaning the device responds moment-to-moment to the user’s brain activity.

The company says this makes Smartbuds fundamentally different from traditional wearables, which track data after the fact. Instead, NextSense focuses on real-time improvement, not just monitoring.

The Fit Kit Subscription: Comfort as a Science

Every purchase includes a Fit Kit subscription, offering free earbud replacements for the first three months to guarantee the perfect fit, critical for in-ear EEG accuracy.

After the initial period, the subscription renews at $14.99/month and users can pause or cancel at any time. Smartbuds require an iPhone running iOS and are available globally for preorder.

Pre-orders are already open at $399, with shipments scheduled for late 2025.

Why Investors Are Betting on EEG for Wellness ?

NextSense’s Series A round reflects growing conviction in closed-loop neurotechnology, devices that don’t just read the brain, but adapt to it.

Lead investor Ascension Ventures highlighted NextSense’s ability to translate decades of neuroscience research into consumer-ready applications. Additional participating investors noted that EEG-powered wearables could become a defining shift in wellness, giving users visibility into cognitive states that were previously inaccessible outside clinical settings.

The round’s rapid oversubscription signals both investor confidence and rising consumer demand for tools that go beyond step tracking and stress estimation.

From Research Labs to the Bedroom: A New Era of Consumer Neurotech

NextSense’s roots lie in years of clinical EEG research and neuroscience validation. The company has already attracted attention from over 30 news outlets including NBC, NPR, CNET and The New York Post, for its work on brain-sensing wearables.

The company is now planning partnerships with leading universities and pharmaceutical groups to integrate Smartbuds into sleep disorder research, cognitive health studies and neurological diagnostic projects.

Medical applications are planned for 2027, underscoring the dual nature of NextSense’s technology: consumer-first today, clinical-grade tomorrow.

The Market Context: Sleep, Exhaustion, and the Brain Health Gap

The timing is not accidental. Chronic exhaustion, burnout, sleep disorders and cognitive overload now affect hundreds of millions globally. Yet most consumers lack any meaningful visibility into what’s happening neurologically.

NextSense’s philosophy is that better sleep is the starting point for better brain function and that better brain function is the foundation for joy, purpose, memory, creativity and emotional clarity.

With Smartbuds, NextSense aims to give users a tool that not only explains why they feel tired, foggy or unfocused, but actively helps them restore balance.

What Sets NextSense Apart ?

NextSense is building toward an experience where wellness is measured not in steps or calories, but in brain rhythms and where users can improve cognitive states in real time using closed-loop auditory stimulation.

Key differentiators include:

• Wireless EEG in a consumer form factor
• Clinical-level insights without medical hardware

• Real-time, adaptive audio based on live brain data

• A long-term roadmap toward medical applications

• Deep neurotech expertise from academia and industry
  

This positions NextSense at the intersection of neuroscience, consumer wearables and personalized digital wellness, a space expected to grow sharply through 2027.

The Future of NextSense: Toward Everyday Cognitive Enhancement

With the $16M Series A secured, NextSense is advancing toward a future where wearable EEG becomes a normal part of daily life. The company plans to expand its research collaborations, strengthen its AI models  and broaden the capabilities of Smartbuds beyond sleep.

By 2027, the startup aims to integrate its technology into clinical workflows, therapeutic interventions and pharmaceutical trials creating a unified ecosystem for understanding and enhancing brain health.

In the long term, the company imagines a world where:

• exhaustion becomes measurable

• focus becomes trainable

• sleep becomes tunable

• cognitive wellness becomes democratized

NextSense wants to give people the ability to “see” their brain the way wearables let us see our heart rate or steps and use that visibility to live with more energy, clarity and resilience.

If Smartbuds deliver as promised, consumer neurotech might finally enter the mainstream.