Lisbon, Nov. 13, 2024 (Lusa) - The Neonoo startup is a project that combines smart cubes with artificial intelligence (AI) with "the mission" of helping neurodivergent children in their development and is looking for investment at the Web Summit to "revolutionise the world".

"The project was created less than a year ago, but the idea came about more than two years ago and has to do with neuroscience," said co-founder Nikita Krupskii, who is responsible for business development and marketing, in an interview with Lusa.

Misha Klimovsky, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO), adds that the project's creation story "is a long one", but "it's a mission" for everyone involved.

"Because everyone on our team has neurodiverse children in the family, we do a lot of projects across the arts and sciences, and this is one of our main projects," he emphasises.

Autism, attention deficit disorder and dyslexia are some examples of neurodivergence and according to Neonoo, "400 million children around the world" face learning challenges in this area.

"We've realised that learning isn't just through the brain," because development is done “with the whole body, exploring the world, with the hands, the arms, the way the body should be used helps the brain to work better,” explains Nikita Krupskiy.

In this sense, this "technology combines smart cubes, hardware devices for children to be involved in the game," with AI. In other words, when the child moves the cube, they use "their whole body, and this is the key concept" because "it will help their development", he says.

"Every child has a unique brain and body, and our system can recognise the pattern when children move the cubes"; thus, it “creates a more flexible way” of learning, according to Misha Klimovsky.

Nikita Krupskiy stresses that AI is important in this project because it allows "personalisation".

For example, in a child "who has difficulty thinking, how he handles the cubes signals our machine learning model and creates experiences corresponding to his specific needs to develop him".

Neonoo, based in Barcelona, Spain, hopes to sell this smart cube solution "for around €90".

At the moment, "we're not selling yet, we need the hardware, we need the money to get to the production part, but we have the cubes pre-produced, and we can share them with the community," he says.

"We're interested in markets in Europe," says the CEO, highlighting the Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Portugal, and Spain.

"We've been scientifically approved because our product works," says Misha Klimovsky.

Nikita Krupskii emphasised that the team "firmly believes that in Spain, Portugal and many other countries there are many people who can benefit from this product".

Moreover, "our research shows that Nordic countries, among others, not only understand the problem but are addressing it," he added.

At the Web Summit, they are looking to attract investment. "Money is an important part because we don't just have an idea; we have a product that can help with these cubes; we're more or less at the beginning of the journey," said Nikita Krupskii.

The start-up needs investment to develop the project and deliver it to potential consumers.

"We need money for marketing, to invest in research and development and hardware," he says, adding that the investment so far, with help from family and friends, is around €200,000.

As for meetings with investors, Nikita Krupskii says they have been "constant".

In fact, "we're going to present the case of our startup on Thursday" at the Web Summit, he says.

"We have a team spread all over the world. Our CTO [Chief Technology Officer] is in Israel, three of us are in Spain, a very important person - the chief science officer - is in Portugal, and a person responsible for the community and all the education is in the USA," he points out.

The project can be consulted at https://neonoo.io/.

When asked how Neonoo sees the project in a year, Nikita Krupskii says, "Revolutionising the world."

The Web Summit, which kicked off on Monday in Lisbon, ends on Thursday.

ALU/ADB // ADB.

Lusa