Omniscient Neurotechnology backed by Gina Rinehart set to reach unicorn status

Gina Rinehart and Charlie Teo back this hi-tech business that’s fast shaping as a billion-dollar local success story.

Omniscient Neurotechnology’s Dr Michael Sughrue, Dr Stephane Doyen and Stephen Scheeler.

Gina Rinehart-backed start-up Omniscient Neurotechnology was the star of the show at last week’s South by Southwest innovation festival in Texas and is shaping up to be Australia’s next tech unicorn, with investors lining up to back the company that uses AI and big data to provide personalised maps of connections within the human brain.

Backed by billionaire investors Gina Rinehart and Will Vicars, and co-founded by Dr Charlie Teo, Omniscient’s technology gives doctors a detailed view of each person’s brain networks, and can build a personalised precision brain map from a standard MRI in less than one hour.

The company last week took out SXSW’s 2022 Innovation Award and chief executive Stephen Scheeler, the former boss of Facebook Australia, says he sees parallels between the huge global potential he saw in Facebook years ago, and with this new start-up.

Gina Rinehart.

“The guy at the heart of Omniscient is American neurosurgeon Michael Sughrue, and he’s a genius. I’ve worked with Mark Zuckerberg, and he and Mark are in the same kind of category. They’re just translational geniuses who can cut across domains,” Mr Scheeler said.

“Mike is a world leader in his field which is using technology to map the human brain, and he’s a lot like Mark in terms of what they can accomplish.”

Omniscient is on track to become Australia’s next tech unicorn, with a $40m capital raising last year valuing the business at $400m. Philanthropist Gretel Packer and Platinum Asset Management co-founder Kerr Neilson are also investors along with Caledonia chief investment officer Will Vicars who has put more than $20m of his family’s money into the start-up.

With FDA approval for its lead product and a growing list of US customers, Mr Scheeler said a larger raising of over $80m later this year will likely value the business at around $1bn, giving it unicorn status. He believes the possible addressable market is in the billions.

“I can’t name names but some of the biggest names in venture capital are calling us and are interested in what we’re doing,” he said.

“It’s crazy times with the financial markets right now but we’re hoping to have another funding round closed this year to particularly scale up what we’re doing with mental health and stroke.”

The company’s tech helps map out the brain’s electrical networks which can then help surgeons perform more precise and safer procedures. Omniscient is now exploring new treatments for stroke and depression, and future products will seek to tackle a range of brain health issues such as Alzeimer’s disease, anxiety and autism.

Omniscient Neurotechnology chief executive Stephen Scheeler

“With the advances made in recent years, particularly by companies such as I used to work for – Facebook, Google and machine learning and artificial intelligence – now we have the computing power and the algorithm to help us in a way we never did even just five years ago,“ Mr Scheeler said.

“As we’ve come to understand these past few years, the brain is a network of networks. It’s essentially just a data network that is processing everything in real time.

“We’re small, we’re getting going, but we do think we’re one of the most exciting and important start-ups in the world because of the importance of the mission that we have. What we’re doing is essentially decoding the brain, and this is stuff we’re doing from right here in Australia.”