Portuguese startup Virtuleap is the winner of an innovation contest in Macau, in which five other Brazilian companies were distinguished and which opens the door to funding support and the Chinese market.
With a capital of 1.4 million euros and looking for funding in the order of two million euros, Virtuleap, founded in 2018, combines neuroscience and virtual reality to help increase levels of attention, in the treatment of cognitive and to delay the onset of cognitive decline.
In the “Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition (Macau) for Technology Companies from Brazil and Portugal 2022”, 14 projects from the two Portuguese-speaking countries were selected.
Professional startups entering China-Portuguese-speaking countries competition in Macau
The winners won monetary prizes, with a maximum value of 150,000 patacas (19,400 euros), and guaranteed support to facilitate access to financing and the mainland Chinese market.
Lisbon-based Virtuleap is a health and education startup using artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) to elevate the cognitive assessment and training industry. The company believes that VR brain training can add value to any healthy lifestyle as a frequent activity taking up less than 10 minutes per session.
Virtuleap’s core product, Enhance, is a VR app with a library of brain training games that test and train various cognitive skills like memory, problem-solving, spatial orientation, and motor control.
The company says that VR “engages multiple learning systems, which makes it a more effective and natural environment for cognitive training than 2D screen-based brain training apps”.
Enhance’s games are designed by neuroscientists and game designers with the intention of being both fun and effective. The app currently offers more than 14 short games across nine different categories: memory, problem-solving, flexibility, working memory, spatial orientation, motor control, auditory cognition, task switching, and planning – with Additional skills to be introduced in the near future.
