This Startup Is Turning Cognitive Health Into A New-Age Wellness Habit

If you are 35 or above, your body could be under too much stress due to hormonal (endocrine) changes, and you may not know. These changes can impact everything from your energy levels and sleep quality to your mood, weight, and overall well-being. However, the tricky part is that the signs often creep in without raising major alarms.

Now, before we get into the “hows” and “whys” of the subject, let’s pause and ask a few important questions:

A: Do you feel as agile and energetic as you did in your twenties or early thirties?

B: Do you gain weight easily now viz a viz five years ago when you would eat almost double of what you can ingest today?

C: Are you experiencing changes in your mood or sleep patterns, leading to increased stress?

D: Do you struggle to stay focussed or feel mentally foggy during the day?

E: Have you become more sensitive to emotional triggers?

If you have answered “no” to question A and “yes” to others, it is a clear sign your body and mind need attention. While it is quite easy to take care of your body by leading a healthy lifestyle — eating healthy or exercising at least three times a week — cognitive health tends to be overlooked.

Cognitive health, which refers to an individual’s ability to think, learn and remember clearly, can decline over time. While cognitive decline is a natural part of ageing, it can signal deeper concerns like dementia or Alzheimer’s in some cases.

In India alone, nearly 30 Mn people are estimated to have mild cognitive impairment , a condition that can gradually progress to dementia in about 15% of cases. However, the bigger issue at hand is that cognitive health often goes unnoticed until it starts to impact one’s daily life.

This is precisely what Issac John (cofounder and CEO) and Rahul Krishnan (cofounder and CPO) are solving — early detection of cognitive issues.

“Cognitive science and brain health are largely underrated in India. If you look at your own family, people prioritise health checkups for the heart, liver, lungs, and kidneys, but rarely for the brain until cognitive decline becomes severe,” said the founders, who founded Ivory in October 2024.

is a Bengaluru-based startup that uses neuroscience-based assessments and interactive games to enable early detection and intervention in cognitive health. The startup primarily targets users in their 40s and 50s, enabling them to screen for cognitive issues long before they become critical.

According to the founders, while the space is already flush with global players like Braincheck, Crayons Health and Cogstate, Ivory stands out as one of the few homegrown companies that uses tech to track cognitive health. A majority of Indian companies in this line of business still use traditional pen and paper tests like Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination (ACE) or Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) or the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE).

“Ivory offers assessments that tell you whether your cognitive score is below or above average, or if you need attention. Alongside, it provides a companion app, which combines games and lifestyle interventions to continuously monitor and enhance your cognitive health,” the CEO said.

Having raised a total of $1.5 Mn since inception, Ivory’s cognitive assessments are currently accessed through a diverse group of clinicians, including clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, general physicians and geriatric specialists. The startup claims to have completed over 15,000 cognitive profiles so far and enjoys a user base of more than 40K individuals.

A Connection That Changed It All

In 2022, both John and Krishnan were at pivotal points in their careers, looking to start something of their own.

John, who had helped scale Discovery+ from scratch into a multi-million-subscriber OTT platform across India and the APAC region, was exploring ideas in the space of family engagement and memory preservation.

Meanwhile, Krishnan had just wrapped up his first startup journey with YAYSHOP, a conversational commerce venture that was acquired by Infra.Market.

The two strangers met at Antler India’s VC Residency Programme — an initiative designed to bring together experienced operators and second-time founders to build from zero.

While their professional worlds were vastly different, it was their personal stories and emotional drivers that brought them together to build something that can change the lives of the old for good.

Both were small-town boys from Kerala, raised by single parents and had experienced the emotional toll of neurodegenerative illness in their families.

It is due to this that the duo wanted to develop something meaningful for people like their parents. This became the foundation of what eventually grew into Ivory.

Ivory’s Building Blocks

Initially, the idea was to build something that would help keep parents engaged. The duo thought of building tools around memory, storytelling and even wellness programmes in different languages.

However, after many more experiments and research, they realised that they needed something more impactful.

Therefore, as part of one of their early experiments, the cofounders would conduct online sessions to help individuals understand the difference between healthcare, wellness, yoga and fitness.

During one such session, participants flooded a guest neurologist with questions. Witnessing the success of the session, the founders organised another one. This time, they invited a neurologist and a neurophysiologist. The response was overwhelming.

“People signed up, turned up, and stayed engaged. That’s when we realised that cognitive health was the real deal. People wanted to know how to keep their brains healthy as they age,” John said.

This led them to dive into the world of cognitive science. Coming from non-healthcare backgrounds, their first step was to build a strong team of clinicians.

Within a year, they studied models from the West, where cognitive screenings were far more mainstream. Realising that India lacked the technology to detect early signs of cognitive decline, they partnered with leading neurologists, neuropsychologists, and researchers to adapt globally standardised tests, tailor them for Indian users, and develop clinically validated tools based on these tests.

Therefore, they spent months iterating, testing, refining assessments and observing user behaviour across. The real product-market fit came from the brain teaser product, which they launched in April, 2024.

The product helped the founders build their first network of more than 2K daily users. Witnessing that there was enough market demand waiting to be unlocked, they launched Ivory in October 2024 to make cognitive health as mainstream as annual health checkups. But the journey ahead was not going to be easy.

Ivory’s Initial Battle

According to the founders, the biggest challenge was creating awareness and making people understand that their cognitive abilities are at risk of slowing down due to age and other factors.

“In India, most people get a cognitive assessment only when it’s already too late, like when a person goes missing or doesn’t return home after a walk. That’s when families rush to a doctor,” Krishnan said.

Another reason for the lack of awareness, per the founders, is that cognitive health is still widely misunderstood. People often link it to mental illness, but the concept of cognitive health goes beyond. Cognitive health is deeply connected to sleep patterns, diet, cardiovascular health and overall well-being. However, this understanding hasn’t yet reached the average Indian consumer.

This is exactly what Ivory is trying to bridge — timely bringing to the fore cases of cognitive impairment, which go unnoticed in 90% of cases among people in their 40s and 50s.

“By this age, serious symptoms appear and conditions like dementia may already be irreversible,” the founders said.

Ivory’s core offering is a cognitive screening assessment. Available via a mobile app, the 30-40 minute FDA-registered delivers a comprehensive cognitive profile, including a cognitive score, cognitive age and a detailed analysis of 22 cognitive skills.

Along with this, Ivory’s app provides personalised daily brain workouts combining cognitive games, mindfulness, and physical activity nudges to help users maintain and improve cognitive function.

Ivory operates on a B2B2C model. On the B2C front, the Ivory app offers a range of tools, which include a free cognitive age test, seven days of personalised brain workouts based on the user’s cognitive age, a mix of free and premium cognitive games.

Beyond the app, its cognitive assessments are used in clinical settings and provide users with a detailed cognitive profile based on factors like speed, accuracy, and executive function.

Ivory’s Early Wins & Tryst With Shark Tank

While still in its pre-revenue stage, Ivory has already made significant strides in building both product and traction.

In the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2024, Ivory is said to have crossed the 10,000 user mark on the app. In Q1 2025, Ivory started monetising three of its products — cognitive assessment, cognitive health checkup, and its subscription product.

It also sealed its first hospital partnership with Marengo Asia and closed corporate orders from Ather Energy, Ritewater Solutions and PUMA.

Ivory also received a major visibility boost after its appearance on Shark Tank India in March, 2025.

“When we filmed the episode in December, we only had around 5,000 users. Today, we’ve grown nearly 10X,” said John.

He added that their appearance on TV helped them penetrate deeper into Indian towns and cities. Until their appearance, most of Ivory’s users were from metros.

But after their Shark Tank appearance, the startup saw demand from tier II and tier III cities like Ludhiana, Bhatinda and Coimbatore.

“We were surprised to witness that it wasn’t just an urban issue… people across India were looking for our solutions,” said Krishnan.

What’s Next For Ivory?

Over the next 12 to 18 months, Ivory’s expansion plans are centred around deepening its clinical footprint and enhancing its assessment capabilities.

The brand also aims to expand its B2C focus and strengthen its B2B2C presence by expanding its network of hospitals and diagnostic chains.

Ivory is also in advanced talks with insurance players and diagnostic networks to embed its cognitive health offering into preventive health checkups.

“The broader goal is to be present across 40,000 to 50,000 clinician touchpoints in India, including general physicians, neurologists, geriatric specialists, and neuropsychologists,” John said.

On the product side, the founders are focussed on evolving the startup’s assessment layer and investing heavily in neuroscience and clinical research to add more accuracy to its FDA-registered test.

“With this, the upcoming version of the app will move beyond games to a more holistic, cognitive lifestyle companion. It will blend brain workouts with daily prompts for mindfulness, movement, and behaviour change,” the cofounders said.

Despite their big plans, Ivory is poised for an uphill battle. This is because brain health takes a back seat in India and is often addressed only after severe symptoms.

For Ivory to succeed in this market, it must focus on scaling its tech and clinical partnerships, all while building trust in a population that rarely prioritises preventive cognitive care.

If things go as planned, Ivory is looking at a juicy chunk of the Indian cognitive assessment and training market, expected to reach $704.92 Mn by 2032.

[Edited By Shishir Parasher]

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