Interview with María López, CEO of Bitbrain: “The support of CDTI Innovación and the European RRF funds is enabling us to bring the first personal brain trainer against Alzheimer's into people's homes”
Through the ELEVVO project, Spanish company Bitbrain is leading the development of a pioneering digital health solution designed to tackle mild cognitive impairment associated with Alzheimer's disease. Backed by CDTI Innovación and the European Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) funds, the initiative has developed a portable neurotechnology device that allows patients to monitor and train their own brain activity in real time from home, offering a non-pharmacological alternative for combating dementia.
Today, digital health is undergoing a profound transformation towards decentralized healthcare, enabling effective treatments to be delivered directly in patients' homes while optimizing public healthcare resources. In this context, transferring scientific knowledge from university laboratories to the marketplace has become a strategic priority for the healthcare sector.
It is within this landscape that Bitbrain emerged. Founded in 2010 as a spin-off from the Neurotechnology Research Group at the University of Zaragoza, the company has been at the forefront of applied neuroscience, transforming complex laboratory-based brain monitoring systems into portable, user-friendly medical devices suitable for everyday use.
Its earliest academic developments included several world-first prototypes, such as a mind-controlled wheelchair and a robot operated through brain signals. These innovations attracted significant international attention and ultimately prompted the team to bring the technology to market. "We decided to do everything possible to ensure it could improve people's lives," explains María López, CEO of Bitbrain.
To make the transition from academia to business, the founding team opted for a self-financing strategy. "We began by providing brain signal measurement tools to researchers and have continuously reinvested those revenues into R&D so that our solutions can reach patients' homes and have a real impact on brain health," she says.
An internationally validated technology
Before focusing on home healthcare, Bitbrain established its technology in highly competitive international markets. Selling its sensors and algorithms to research laboratories and multinational companies around the world provided strong validation of the reliability of its technology in real-world environments.
According to López, one of the company's most significant international milestones was its collaboration with Nissan Japan on the Brain-to-Vehicle project. "Our technology detects the driver's intention to brake directly from brain activity and sends the signal to the vehicle up to 500 milliseconds before the driver's foot reaches the brake pedal."
The company's technology has also transformed audiology across Europe by enabling objective hearing assessments based on brain responses, an essential breakthrough for diagnosing babies and patients with communication impairments.
ELEVVO: targeted neuroplasticity to combat Alzheimer's disease
One of Bitbrain's flagship projects is ELEVVO, an innovative device designed to address the growing challenge of neurodegenerative diseases in the absence of effective pharmaceutical treatments.
Supported by CDTI Innovación and European RRF funding through the Seal of Excellence programme, the project approaches Alzheimer's prevention from a different scientific perspective by stimulating neural connections in a personalized way based on each patient's own brain activity.
"ELEVVO is essentially a personal trainer for the brain," summarizes María López.
The system consists of a lightweight textile headband that continuously measures the patient's brain electrical activity and connects to a digital application that guides users through exercises designed to train specific cognitive functions such as memory and attention.
"The system identifies the brain waves associated with memory and attention and provides visual feedback showing users whether they are activating those brain patterns correctly," López explains.
This precision is particularly important during the mild cognitive impairment stage. At this intermediate phase, the brain still retains sufficient neuroplasticity for repetitive training to strengthen neural networks and produce measurable cumulative improvements.
This approach, known as targeted neuroplasticity, enables the system to identify each individual's brain activity patterns associated with cognitive performance and train users to activate them beyond their normal baseline.
To support the effectiveness of the technology, López points to the results of a recent clinical study involving patients with mild cognitive impairment who independently used ELEVVO at home for three months.
The study demonstrated an approximately 60% improvement in neural connectivity, translating into significant gains in both episodic and working memory, as well as measurable clinical improvements using standard neuropsychological assessment scales.
Unlike generic brain-training applications, ELEVVO continuously monitors each user's physiological response and dynamically adapts the difficulty of the exercises. Another major advantage is that patients can use the device entirely independently at home while physicians remotely monitor treatment progress without requiring hospital visits.
Sustainability and circular management in healthcare
Making this technology accessible to hospitals also requires overcoming the financial barriers associated with purchasing specialized medical equipment.
To address this challenge, Bitbrain has developed a Hardware-as-a-Service (HaaS) business model based on pay-per-use and circular device management.
Under this approach, hospitals do not need to make substantial upfront capital investments in equipment that may quickly become obsolete.
"Hospitals will not purchase the devices. Instead, they will pay per patient treated and for the associated support services. At the end of each device's lifecycle, it will be collected, refurbished and redeployed," explains the company's co-founder.
The entire process is digitally integrated. Neurologists identify suitable patients during consultations and prescribe the treatment, after which the medical device is automatically delivered directly to the patient's home.
Throughout the treatment, all session data and patient progress are securely stored in the cloud, enabling physicians to monitor medical indicators remotely.
Despite its considerable potential, López acknowledges one of the major challenges ahead.
"It is necessary to obtain full medical certification, and there is still a long regulatory pathway ahead of us that will take at least another five years. For now, ELEVVO is only being used in hospitals for research purposes."
Strategic support from CDTI Innovación and the RRF
Developing medical neurotechnology involves lengthy, capital-intensive research cycles and demanding international regulatory requirements before mandatory medical certifications can be obtained.
For this reason, López describes the support provided by CDTI Innovación through its Seal of Excellence funding programme as "essential."
The programme finances R&D projects carried out by Spanish SMEs that have received the European Innovation Council's Seal of Excellence under the Horizon Europe programme, supporting breakthrough technologies capable of creating entirely new markets.
"The viability of innovations like ours depends heavily on public funding," López says.
"Projects of this nature require investment levels that are extremely difficult for an SME to absorb. In our case, we simply could not have undertaken this project without the support of CDTI."
Expanding to new medical applications
Looking ahead, Bitbrain plans to extend the capabilities of the ELEVVO platform to address additional neurological conditions, including sleep disorders and motor rehabilitation following stroke.
To achieve this, the company is developing a new generation of wearable devices capable not only of measuring brain activity but also of processing and interpreting data in real time.
To significantly reduce manufacturing costs while ensuring privacy by design, Bitbrain is investing in organic electronics, enabling the production of more flexible and affordable materials, alongside edge computing, which processes data directly on the device itself.
These next-generation wearable sensors will also incorporate intelligent models requiring no individual patient configuration, explainable AI systems that clearly communicate their operation to clinicians, and built-in privacy filters that protect user identity.
"We are building the neurotechnology foundation of the future," López concludes.
About CDTI Innovación
CDTI Innovación (Centre for the Development of Technology and Innovation) is the innovation agency of Spain's Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. Its mission is to promote technological innovation within Spanish businesses and help transform scientific and technological knowledge into globally competitive, sustainable and inclusive economic growth.
In 2025, as part of its 2024–2027 Strategic Plan, CDTI provided €2.423 billion in funding and support to Spanish companies and startups.
More information
Website: www.cdti.es
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/29815
X: https://x.com/CDTI_innovacion
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/CDTIoficial
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