£2m seed backs speech-based AI to detect dementia early and personalise care
This article covers Punto Health, a healthtech startup, which has raised a £2m seed round co-led by Shilling VC and Plus Partners to accelerate an AI-driven platform for early detection and personalised support in dementia and cognitive care. The funding is intended to speed product development and expand commercial pilots across the UK and Spain, supporting earlier diagnosis, ongoing monitoring and personalised care for people with dementia, their carers and clinicians.
Punto Health, a healthtech startup, has raised a £2m seed round co-led by Shilling VC and Plus Partners to accelerate an AI-driven platform for early detection and personalised support in dementia and cognitive care. The funding will be used to speed product development and expand commercial pilots across the UK and Spain at a moment when demand for better diagnostic and care tools is rising.
Why it matters
Dementia is a fast-growing global health challenge: by 2030 an estimated 78 million people will be living with dementia, and roughly one in two people will be affected as either a patient or carer at some point. Early detection and continuous monitoring are seen as key to managing progression and supporting families, but the field has been underfunded relative to its social and economic impact.
The £2m round is notable for two reasons. First, it backs a product that combines speech-based AI with clinician workflows and patient-facing care tools. Second, it is led by venture investors supporting a female-founded team in a space where such founders typically receive a small share of venture funding. The deal reflects growing interest from healthtech investors in early-detection tools.
Inside the product
Punto Health is building a multilingual platform composed of three linked products.
- PuntoTest: a speech-based digital assessment that uses AI to generate objective, quantifiable metrics of cognitive function. It is designed for early detection, remote monitoring, and large-scale clinical triage.
- PuntoCare: a patient and carer app that provides personalised daily plans including cognitive stimulation exercises, physical activity, nutrition guidance, symptom tracking and lifestyle recommendations. It also offers an AI virtual companion that the company says only responds with clinically validated information and is not intended to replace professional care.
- PuntoClinic: a clinician dashboard that aggregates patient-reported outcomes and biomarker data to support personalised decision-making and streamline research tasks such as clinical trial pre-screening and monitoring.
The platform has been co-designed and clinically validated with Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona. That partnership is being used to develop a digital biomarker based on speech analysis to detect changes across multiple cognitive domains.
Real-world testing is already underway. In Spain, PuntoTest was trialled in a rapid cognitive screening programme with Ace Alzheimer Center and Nutricia across ten pharmacies in Barcelona and involved more than 1,500 participants aged 50 and above. PuntoCare is being piloted at North London NHS Foundation Trust, NHS Oxleas Foundation Trust, Hospital del Mar in Barcelona and Hospital General de Granollers. The app supports more than 200 users aged 60 to 90, who have completed over 30,000 activities, and the company reports that more than two-thirds of users say they feel better able to manage day-to-day life.
Who are the investors?
The £2m seed round was co-led by Shilling VC and Plus Partners, with participation from Exceptional Ventures, Heartfelt, Fondo Bolsa Social and ABAC Nest. The funding follows a £630,000 pre-seed round and several international recognitions that the company says underline its momentum.
In the announcement, Tomás Güida, Investor at Shilling VC, said:
Innovation in this area has lagged behind for too long. Punto Health is changing that. Anna and Jack are developing a clinically rigorous AI platform that provides families and healthcare professionals with tools that set a new standard for early detection and personalised care for neurodegenerative diseases. We believe this team is uniquely positioned to expand a solution that will define a category in the healthcare system.
In the announcement, Oriol Juncosa, Partner at Plus Partners, said:
Cognitive impairment and dementia are among the greatest health challenges of our time. Punto Health is building the operating system that will diagnose earlier, guide families and carers, and modernise the entire infrastructure of cognitive care. We are proud to back Anna and Jack, a world-class team bringing the expertise, resilience, and empathy this problem demands.
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Founder perspective
Punto Health was founded in 2023 in London by engineers Anna Muñoz-Farré and Jack Eckersley. The team positions the platform as a way to move dementia care from reactive crisis management to proactive, personalised support that fits into people's lives.
In the announcement, Anna Muñoz-Farré, Co-founder & CEO at Punto Health, said:
Dementia is never just one person’s disease. It affects entire families, and carers often carry an enormous invisible burden. We are building technology that turns a reactive, crisis-driven system into proactive, personalised support that fits into people’s real lives.
The founders have also secured programme placements and awards that may help with clinical and commercial scaling, including the NN Social Innovation Award 2025 powered by Rubio Impact Ventures and NN Group, a finalist spot in the VIII Edición de los Premios Discapnet by Fundación ONCE, selection for the AD Moonshot by Startup Health and the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, and entry to the AI-First Google Accelerator 2025.
The bigger picture
Punto Health’s approach sits at the intersection of AI-driven diagnostics and integrated care pathways. Its emphasis on speech-based digital biomarkers is part of a broader trend in which non-invasive, remote measures are used to augment clinical assessment and support trial recruitment.
However, challenges remain. Clinical adoption in public health systems requires robust validation, data governance and clear pathways for reimbursement. The company’s existing NHS pilots and international pharmacy screening give it initial evidence, but scaling across health systems in the UK and Europe will demand further clinical proof and partnerships.
This funding round adds to a modest but growing flow of capital into dementia-focused healthtech. For policymakers and funders looking to address the societal cost of neurodegenerative disease, backing tools that aid early detection and support carers may become an increasingly visible priority across the UK and Europe.
They've invested in Punto Health
Get to know these healthtech investors
| Investor | Sector | Stage | Activity | Team | Connect |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Shilling VC | 1 investment investment | more info | |||
 Plus Partners | 1 investment investment | more info | |||
 Exceptional Ventures | 23 investments investments | 5 contacts contacts | |||
 Heartfelt | 2 investments investments | more info | |||
 Bolsa Social Fund (Fondo Bolsa Social) | 3 investments investments | 4 contacts contacts | |||
 Abac Nest | 2 investments investments | more info |
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