Wesley Berry was working with musician Grimes on translating neural signals into art when he met Eric Wollberg in March. Wollberg wanted to use lucid dreams to explore consciousness, while Berry was trying to translate neural signals into art. A brain-imaging tool could help paint a picture of someone’s thought patterns, which fascinated both of them. 

Prophetic was founded that same month by the two, who were 29 and 27 years old, respectively. It’s a startup that’s making what it calls the “world’s first wearable device for stabilizing lucid dreams.” This device emits focused ultrasound signals.

People who are dreaming may be able to control parts of their dreams when they become aware that they are dreaming.

A16z’s Scout Fund invested in the startup, which was led by BoxGroup, the venture capital fund that invested in Plaid first. The startup raised $1.1 million in a previously unreported funding round. Prophetic has partnered with Card79, the same company responsible for the hardware for Elon Musk’s brain-computer interface company, Neuralink, to prototype the noninvasive device. 

Several artificial intelligence companies are investing in devices or wearables at the same time as Prophetic’s hardware investment. Humane AI, a company founded by former Apple employees, debuted its wearable – the AI Pin – at Paris Fashion Week last week. OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Jony Ive, the designer of Apple’s iPhone, are also reportedly talking about developing AI hardware. 

Both Wollberg and Berry, Prophetic’s CEO and chief technology officer, plan to demonstrate a semi-working prototype later this month or in early November. They say, however, that the prototype will not be tested fully until the third or fourth quarter of 2024, after the results of a yearlong study on brain imaging conducted in cooperation with Radboud University’s Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behavior. 

With Wollberg comparing the company to OpenAI, the co-founders have the lofty dreams of modern tech startups. As its LinkedIn page states, “Prometheus stole fire from the gods, we will steal dreams from the prophets.”. The organization’s mission is to work “collectively towards understanding the nature of consciousness”.