Stepwave wins Venture Kick Stage I

The Brain-IT project has been recognized with the prestigious Vontobel Award for Age(ing) Research 2024 for its rigorous, participatory approach behind Brain-IT — finding the right balance between scientific theory and the real-world needs of users and health professionals through their consistent involvement in development.

Brain-IT is making headlines: over 30 media features, 3 radio broadcasts and press releases from two universities cover our unique combination of brain-body exergames and biofeedback breathing in the fight against forgetting.

A new study published in Alzheimer's Research & Therapy shows that personalized brain-body exergame training with Brain-IT may be linked to positive structural changes in the hippocampus.

Everything came together in this publication: Move. Think. Breathe. — delivered through enjoyable exercise videogames that are personalized to each individual’s capacity, participation and progress.

Exergames are still often filed under entertainment with a health label attached. Our international review in Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews argues the opposite case: done properly, brain-body exergames are a serious instrument for health promotion and disease prevention.

Building Brain-IT taught us a great deal about what it takes to design a training concept that people actually keep doing. Rather than keeping those lessons to ourselves, we brought together an international team of experts to formalise them.

Exergames have grown from recreational activities into a serious tool for health promotion and rehabilitation. Our chapter in The Handbook of Physical Activity and Cognitive Neuroscience (Routledge) sets out where that journey has arrived — and where it still has to go.

Our latest analysis from a randomized controlled trial show that Brain-IT not only improves cognition and brain structure — but also enhances brain activity patterns in ways directly correlated with real-world performance.

The jury of Venture Kick believes in Stepwave! Venture Kick is among Europe’s Leading Startup Hubs 2026 and provides us with an additional CHF 40,000 (totaling CHF 50,000) in funding to prepare for market entry together with access to structured coaching, workshops and an extensive network of investors.

Yes, exercise can indeed reshape large-scale brain networks, but we need stronger evidence linking these changes to clinically meaningful outcomes — exactly what we provide with Brain-IT.

The entire founding team was invited to serve on an expert panel to help develop a new methodological guide — thereby solidifying our role as leaders shaping best practices in the exergame field.

Dr. Jorn Ockerman joins Stepwave as Co-founder & CPO.