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Millions worldwide suffer from cognitive disorders like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and multiple sclerosis, yet few treatments ease these conditions. Neurology remains underserved, with the segment not tapped by most healthtech firms. NeuroDiscovery AI, founded by Vamsi Chandra Kasivajjala in 2023, aims to fill this gap. The startup has built a neurology-focused artificial intelligence system to help doctors diagnose patients and pharmaceutical companies develop new treatments. The idea emerged when CEO Kasivajjala's grandmother was diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment during the COVID-19 pandemic, prompting him to investigate neurological diseases and the lack of therapies to halt or reverse their progression. "We aim to meaningfully slow, stop, or reverse five major neurological conditions: Alzheimer's, frontotemporal dementia, migraine, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson's," he tells YourStory. Kasivajjala brings 25 years of experience in healthcare technology. He co-founded Enlightiks, a business analytics services startup, and Foundation AI, a document workflow automation company, and has published extensively on AI in healthcare, with research focused on AI applications between 2012 and 2018. The solution and its technology The founder spent three years developing the platform before launching in 2024, after research and relationship-building with neurologists. This extended development period allowed for deep integration with clinical workflows and comprehensive testing with neurology practices. NeuroDiscovery AI’s specialised AI platform gathers and analyses patient data, including electronic health records, lab results, clinical notes, and medical imaging such as MRI, PET, EEG, and EMG. The platform integrates directly with healthcare provider systems, keeping patient data within each provider's environment, where it is de-identified in accordance with the HIPAA Safe Harbour rules. For hospitals and clinics, the startup has developed NeuroBrowser, a plugin that provides AI-generated insights during patient visits, and NeuroVision, which uses computer vision to analyse brain scans and automatically measure volumes and identify lesions. A neurology-specific chatbot assists with clinical documentation and note summarisation, streamlining administrative tasks for physicians. For pharmaceutical companies, the startup is offering four services: Real World Data gives them access to de-identified patient records for research; Real World Evidence conducts statistical analyses to validate hypotheses and compare drug effectiveness; Clinical Trial Enrollment uses AI to match patients with trial criteria, reducing enrollment timelines from months to weeks; and Implementation Sciences helps bridge clinical research with practical medical application. NeuroDiscovery AI’s offerings are powered by NeuroLLM, an AI system trained specifically on neurological data. Research published by NeuroDiscovery AI in mid-2025 showed that its neuroscience-specific model, NDAI-NeuroMAP, achieved 94.5% accuracy, compared to 72% for competing alternatives. The platform currently holds data from 5.3 million US neurology patients and maintains compliance with HIPAA, GDPR, FDA Real World Data Framework, ISO 27000, and SOC 2 standards. Competitive edge and clients NeuroDiscovery AI differentiates itself through specialised focus and data scale. It claims to have built the only AI system focused exclusively on neurology. "Most healthtech companies take a generic approach across all disease areas," Kasivajjala says. "We only focus on neurology, which helps us understand this patient population better." Competitors include firms like IQVIA and Veradigm in patient data services, and AutoCruitment in clinical trial enrollment. The startup’s primary revenue comes from pharmaceutical, life sciences, and biotech companies, serving departments from R&D to commercial teams. NeuroDiscovery AI currently has eight paid clients with multi-year contracts. Funding and expansion The company raised seed funding of Rs 50.4 crore from investors, including Dr Laszlo Mechtler, Dr Ajith Thomas, and Dr Samarth Kulkarni. Notably, 97% of the investment came from neurologists, neurosurgeons, and neurology hospital administrators. "We wanted only providers to invest in the first round to ensure tight relationships," Kasivajjala says. NeuroDiscovery AI’s plans for the next year include focusing on real-world data and clinical trials revenue while establishing operations as a site management organisation and achieving profitability. For 2027, priorities include integrating omics data (genomics, proteomics) into the platform and advancing biomarker discovery initiatives. The five-year goal is to find a cure, halt progression, or reverse the course of five major neurological diseases: Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal dementia, migraine, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson's disease. NeuroDiscovery AI is part of YourStory’s Tech30 cohort—a selection of India’s most promising startups of 2025—unveiled at TechSparks Bengaluru. (Edited by Kanishk Singh)
