Sonde Health purchases NeuroLex Labs’ voice platform and 500K biometric samples

Vocal biomarker technology company Sonde Health has purchased NeuroLex Labs, adding the popular voice web survey and analysis platform along with the biometric health dataset it enabled, and appointed NeuroLex CEO Jim Schwoebel as Sonde’s vice president, Data and Research.

NeuroLex provides web-based voice surveys with partners like pharmaceuticals companies and academic institutions, according to HIT Consultant, through which it has amassed a dataset of 500,000 voice samples from more than 30,000 people. The dataset has been labeled and modeled by 40 research fellows from 12 universities. Sonde had collected 300,000 voice samples of its own, prior to the acquisition.

“I’m beyond excited to join Sonde’s amazing team and mission,” said Schwoebel in a prepared statement. “We started NeuroLex to create a voice test to help screen for psychosis and related psychiatric conditions. Together with Sonde, we will expand beyond these conditions to transform the way both physical and mental health are detected and managed to positively impact lives.”

Sonde Health’s voice biometrics system was used to develop a test to prevent COVID-19 spread. By taking a six-second voice sample, it uses machine learning to identify symptoms such as coughing, shortness of breath, chest tightness or pain.

Following the acquisition, NeuroLex’s features will be integrated with Sonde’s mobile and voice-assistant platforms to provide voice-enabled health detection and monitoring for multiple platforms, according to the announcement.

“At Sonde, we have unlocked voice as a new vital sign to enable secure, accessible, and non-intrusive monitoring of health. Incorporating NeuroLex’s impressive work in voice-based surveys and research moves us significantly forward in becoming the one-stop shop for health condition detection and monitoring through voice,” said David Liu, CEO of Sonde Health, in a prepared statement. “NeuroLex’s voice-based survey platform and biobank will accelerate our research and development, and our collection and analysis of high-quality voice data, bolstering all the products we provide to our customers.”

Sonde’s biometric technology detects and analyzes voice variations generated by changes in physiology. Users can already access the respiratory and depression health checks.

“I am thrilled to bring Jim and his team on board,” added Liu. “His experience in building NeuroLex, shared mission of using vocal biomarkers to move healthcare forward, and expertise in building large voice-based datasets and machine learning make Jim a tremendous addition to the Sonde team.”

Article Topics

acquisitions  |  biometric data  |  biometric database  |  biometrics  |  data collection  |  dataset  |  machine learning  |  Sonde Health  |  voice biometrics