Sonomind

About Sonomind

Sonomind is a medical device company operating within the extensive $500 billion mental health market, concentrating on treatments for neurological and psychiatric conditions. The Paris-based firm was established in 2024 by CEO Jérémy Bercoff, alongside Professors Mickael Tanter and Jean-François Aubry. The company's foundation rests on over 25 years of research conducted by its scientific co-founders at the prestigious Institut Physique pour la Médecine in Paris (Inserm, ESPCI Paris - PSL, CNRS). Bercoff, a physicist with a Ph.D. from ESPCI ParisTech, brings prior entrepreneurial experience as a co-founder of SuperSonic Imagine, a medical imaging company that stemmed from his doctoral research in quantitative elastography. Tanter and Aubry are renowned researchers in the field of focused ultrasound, leading a Center of Excellence at Physics for Medicine Paris.

The company is developing a non-invasive neuromodulation system that utilizes low-intensity focused ultrasound to address disorders like drug-resistant depression. This condition affects approximately 30% of individuals diagnosed with major depressive disorder who do not respond to medication. Sonomind's key technology is a portable transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) device. Its distinct feature is a patient-specific 3D-printed acoustic lens, or "metalens." This custom lens is created using data from a patient's CT scan to compensate for the unique shape and thickness of their skull, allowing ultrasound waves to target deep brain structures, such as the subcallosal cingulate, with millimetric precision. This approach seeks to provide the accuracy of invasive Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) without requiring surgery.

The business model is centered on the development and eventual sale of this medical device to clinical providers. The treatment protocol demonstrated in initial studies involves sessions of about one hour per day over five consecutive days. A preliminary clinical feasibility study on a small group of patients with severe depression showed encouraging results, with an average reduction in depression severity of over 60% by the fifth day and no serious adverse events reported. Sonomind has raised a total of €3 million. This includes a €2 million seed round from Critical Path Ventures and €1 million in non-dilutive funding from the French Government's France 2030 initiative via Bpifrance. These funds are allocated to finalizing the product's development, initiating larger clinical trials for drug-resistant depression, and defining a market access and reimbursement strategy, initially targeting markets in France and other European countries.