CABHI awards $3.2M to 25 Canadian companies and researchers using AI and other critical technology to solve aging and brain health challenges

The Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation (CABHI), powered by Baycrest, is awarding $3.2 million in funding to 25 Canadian companies and researchers using AI and other critical technologies to solve urgent aging and brain health challenges—including dementia prevention. The funding is through CABHI’s Ignite program, which supports healthcare and research organizations, as well as early- to mid-stage start-ups, in overcoming common challenges that stall innovation. This program helps translate promising ideas into real-world solutions, creating Canadian jobs and improving the lives of the rapidly growing number of older persons and caregivers.

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Canada is a global leader in research and AI innovation that solves really complex challenges affecting older persons and caregivers. CABHI is proud to be helping create jobs, talent, and investments in homegrown solutions that have a profound real-world impact on people’s lives—especially those affected by cognitive decline and dementia—at a time when it’s never been more paramount to our country’s resilience and economic sustainability.

Dr. Allison Sekuler, President and Chief Scientist of the CABHI
and the Baycrest Academy for Research and Education

Investing in aging and brain health innovation is crucial to supporting Canada's “super-aged” population—as of this year, nearly 20% of Canadians are aged 65. Rising rates of dementia are projected to cost the Canadian economy $110 billion annually by 2050, and researchers are warning that our healthcare systems won’t be able to keep up with the growing need for increasingly complex care. In this new reality, agetech (AI and other critical technologies that support healthy aging and brain health) represents one of the fastest-growing investment opportunities on the global stage, valued at an estimated $2 trillion. Programs like Ignite are helping position Canada as an international leader in AI innovation, attracting investments and talent at a time when trade uncertainty is necessitating new approaches to protecting our economy.

Innovative solutions are critical to addressing the complex challenges facing older Canadians and those who care for them. The Government of Canada, through the Strategic Science Fund, is proud to invest in CABHI’s Ignite program, which empowers researchers and companies to develop and test cutting-edge technologies that improve brain health and quality of life, while strengthening our position as a global leader in science and innovation.

The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Industry
and Minister Responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions

As part of the Ignite program, CABHI provides funding recipients with tailored acceleration services, enhancing the innovation process and removing roadblocks that often stall progress. Innovators are paired with end users (older persons and caregivers) to collect and implement their feedback, ensuring solutions meet their diverse needs. This co-design process is core to the successful development and commercialization of aging and brain health innovation: a recent AgeTech Insights report published by CABHI showed that 1 in 2 older Canadians want to actively participate in co-design of innovation, and that nearly 100% of respondents use technology in their daily lives. Of those, 1 in 5 are actively using digital tools to manage their health. (July 2025). These market intelligence reports show a growing gap between supply and demand for aging and brain health solutions that leverage new critical technologies.

Ontario is home to a world-class sector of brain health researchers that translate ideas to solutions that save and improve lives. The Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation’s Ignite program will ensure more researchers have the tools they need to continue advancing brain discoveries that protect people’s health and further cement the province as an epicentre of innovation.

Nolan Quinn, Minister of Colleges, Universities, Research Excellence and Security

  • Cogni

    Cogni is an Ontario start-up that previously completed CABHI’s NextGen Support Package, which provides funding and tailored support for students and recent graduates developing early-stage aging and brain health innovations. Calista provides remote cognitive monitoring for older persons during phone calls, using AI-powered voice analysis to identify subtle signs of cognitive decline. As a NexGen Support Package alum, the Cogni team is continuing to progress through CABHI’s innovation journey with Ignite support.

  • Paige

    Paige developed one-touch video communication device for older persons—including those with dementia—that leverages critical technology to enable secure, effortless connection, support aging in place, and reduce social isolation.

  • Flow

    Flow is an AI-powered platform that streamlines cognitive and mental health assessments for geriatric and cognitive care teams. It automates scoring, note-taking, and reporting to reduce assessment time and support earlier detection of cognitive decline.

  • Sensus

    Sensus by Bough Biosciences is a drug discovery platform leveraging proprietary multi-omics to identify and characterize senescent immune cells in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s and related dementias. The platform also uncovers druggable targets within these cells to reverse their detrimental effects, such as neuroinflammation, on brain aging and disease.

  • Pharmacologically enhanced brain stimulation for mental health by MCGRx Corp

    MCGRx Corp is developing combined non-invasive brain stimulation and a single small-molecule therapy to improve mental health in older adults, targeting depression and neuropsychiatric symptoms that increase dementia risk and caregiver burden, with shorter, simpler sessions for those with limited mobility or cognitive impairment.

  • Agentic AI for Alzheimer's therapeutics by Nanil Therapeutics Inc.

    Nanil Therapeutics Inc. developed an Agentic AI platform that designs and evaluates Alzheimer’s therapeutics in silico, integrating multimodal patient data to model tau and amyloid biology, simulate candidate pharmacology, and optimize biologics, accelerating discovery and reducing late-stage trial failures.

  • BrainScores

    BrainScores developed an accurate and automated processing of multimodal neuroimaging data for the prognosis and diagnosis of aging-related cognitive decline.

  • Vital Flows by Displaid

    Vital Flows is an AI-enabled home wearable using thoracic bioimpedance to monitor pulmonary artery pressure and prevent heart failure complications that threaten brain health, including hypoxia, microvascular damage, and delirium. It also supports older adults (avg. age 75) with cognitive impairment or dementia to age in place by replacing complex self-management tasks, such as early symptoms recognition, diuretic adjustment, and fluid tracking, with objective Vitals Flow data

  • NeuroFlux (RTN Platform) from the University of British Columbia and the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health

    NeuroFlux (RTN Platform), from the University of British Columbia and the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health, is a “brain on a chip” biosensor that monitors neurochemicals in real time to better decode pathophysiology and develop therapies for aging-related disorders such as AD and PD.

  • DemBOT: Dementia Brain Observation Technology by Brain Care Technologies

    Brain Care Technologies is developing DemBOT, a portable EEG+fNIRS system for early detection and monitoring of mild cognitive impairment and dementia.

  • Elderella

    Elderella is a caregiver coordination platform that helps families support older adults with cognitive decline or dementia by centralizing care information, reducing missed details, and easing complex decision-making.

  • XO Companion Ring and XO Functional-Health Mesh Platform by XO Technology Inc.

    XO Technology Inc. developed an Agentic AI platform that designs and evaluates Alzheimer’s therapeutics in silico, integrating multimodal patient data to model tau and amyloid biology, simulate candidate pharmacology, and optimize biologics, accelerating discovery and reducing late-stage trial failures.

  • CoveConnect

    CoveConnect is an AI-driven analysis that converts EEG and MRI neuroimaging data into reproducible cognitive biomarkers, supporting cognitive monitoring, patient stratification, and therapy evaluation.

  • Metal-assisted fluorescence spectroscopy for early detection of Alzheimer's disease and related disorders

    Team members from the University of Calgary created a blood-based diagnostic platform that uses metal-enabled fluorescence to detect Alzheimer’s disease early and support personalized treatment by distinguishing different amyloid proteins.

  • mTatt

    mTatt develops dissolvable microtattoos and a home reader for painless biomarker monitoring. The platform enables real-time tracking of multiple clinically relevant biomarkers, supporting earlier detection, better management of chronic and aging-related conditions, including cognitive health.

  • SundaeDoll

    SundaeDoll is a hybrid companion device (a soft, interactive doll with responsive sensors) paired with a wellbeing analytics platform. It engages residents in comforting, creative interactions while generating real-time emotional health insights to detect early mood shifts and enable personalized support.

  • ConsensusConnectR from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

    ConsensusConnectR is a functional brain connectivity analysis platform that accounts for sex and hormonal influences while standardizing analytical methods to support more precise and personalized AD treatments.

  • Root & Seed

    Root & Seed is a storytelling-based aging and brain-health platform helping caregivers and older adults build meaningful, identity-affirming connections at home. Its gamified conversation cards and secure digital platform reduce loneliness and support cognitive and emotional well-being

  • KinCapsule

    KinCapsule is an AI-powered storytelling and care platform that uses family insights to deliver personalized, dignified, and human-centred engagement for older adults in particular those with dementia or mental health needs.

  • PhotoHealth from the University of Waterloo

    PhotoHealth is a smartphone tool that screens for eye diseases using a photo, to prevent vision loss and address its known association with increased dementia risk.

  • WearME NeuroPD (WearME NeuroPDGlove and WearME NeuroPDSocks) from Western University

    WearME NeuroPD (WearME NeuroPDGlove and WearME NeuroPDSocks) are textile wearables for Parkinson’s monitoring (via motion and biosignals recording) and therapy (via mechanical stimulation)

  • ORION by Pareon Biosystems

    ORION is a single multiplex blood test measuring 20 proteins validated to predict dementia years before cognitive decline. Its unified ‘proteomic aging signature’ is highly accurate and cost-effective, enabling practical use in routine care.

  • NovaSense Technology Ltd.

    NovaSense is an AI-powered pressure and shear monitoring system that uses flexible sensors and predictive algorithms to prevent pressure injuries in older adults with limited mobility, particularly those unable to communicate discomfort.

  • A Novel CNS-penetrant small molecule drug for the treatment of neuroinflammation in Alzheimer's disease and related dementias from University Health Network

    University Health Network developed a small molecule targeting a calcium channel associated with neuroinflammation and pathogenic tau in AD and related dementias.

  • NeuroTrack from the Healthy City Lab out of the University of Calgary

    NeuroTrack provides remote cognitive monitoring for older adults, using voice analysis during phone calls to identify subtle signs of decline.

Over the course of the year-long program, the cohort will progress through their project milestones, completing a variety of research and development, testing, and early-stage validation activities with CABHI support.

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