Aegis Ventures and Wavelet Medical Aim to Redefine the Standard of Care in Fetal Medicine

Wavelet is on a mission to eliminate preventable brain injury at birth and reduce unnecessary caesarean sections, improving the lives of babies and mothers around the world.

NEW YORK, April 14, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- A breakthrough in fetal brain monitoring developed at Yale is moving from laboratory discovery to global commercialization through a pivotal partnership with Aegis Ventures, including $7M in seed funding.

Wavelet Medical, founded by Liz Golden (CEO), Dr. Emily Lee (Chief Medical Officer), and Dr. Jose Cortes-Briones (Head of Science), has partnered with Aegis Ventures to co-create and scale the first non-invasive, AI-powered fetal electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring platform - technology designed to detect fetal brain distress in real time and prevent avoidable brain injury at birth.

For decades, obstetrics has relied primarily on fetal heart rate monitoring (FHM), a tool that does not directly measure neurological function and is indeterminate in up to 85% of births. The result: missed cases of hypoxia leading to lifelong disability - and unnecessary C-sections driven by false positives.

Wavelet changes the paradigm by measuring the organ that directly provides neurologic status: the brain.

Using non-invasive EEG captured through the mother's abdomen and reconstructed with proprietary AI algorithms engineered by Dr. Cortes-Briones, Wavelet identifies auditory-evoked brain responses that signal neurological distress - without invasive scalp electrodes or added risk to mother or baby. "Until recently, noninvasive fetal EEG from the maternal abdomen was not feasible; we are now harnessing AI to reconstruct fetal EEG and translate it into quantitative markers of fetal distress," said Dr. Cortes-Briones.

Each year in the U.S., more than 35,000 infants suffer brain injuries at birth and approximately one-third of births are delivered via caesarian section. Globally, with 140 million births annually, the implications are profound - medically, emotionally, and economically.

Wavelet becoming an Aegis portfolio company represents a turning point.

"This is the moment breakthrough science becomes scalable impact," said Golden. "Aegis brings the ecosystem, experience, and capital needed to accelerate product development, clinical adoption, and commercialization. Together, we have a real opportunity to redefine what 'standard of care' means in fetal medicine - and to save lives."

Aegis, a venture studio building category-defining healthtech companies in partnership with trailblazing scientists, entrepreneurs, academic institutions, and health systems, identified maternal-fetal medicine as an area primed for predictive AI innovation and met the Wavelet team through its relationship with Yale Ventures, which supports the commercialization of breakthrough research emerging from the university. Yale New Haven Health has also recently joined Aegis' Digital Consortium of leading health systems.

Murray Brozinsky, Partner at Aegis and Executive Chair of Wavelet's Board, sees Wavelet as emblematic of predictive medicine. "Our companies are leading the way in building proactive care solutions. The future of healthcare is anticipatory," Brozinsky said. "Wavelet uses AI to create a new biomarker - direct measurement of fetal brain activity. There are few missions more important than making birth safer. We're proud to partner with Liz, Emily, and Jose to bring this technology to mothers worldwide."

Clinical leaders believe the company's innovation could mark the first meaningful evolution of fetal monitoring in decades.

"Wavelet captures EEG signals from the organ that first shows signs of fetal distress - the brain," said Dr. Brian Kalish, Neonatologist at Boston Children's Hospital and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. "If non-invasive EEG demonstrates strong predictive value, it has a very high likelihood of becoming standard of care."

International partners are equally enthusiastic.

"When Yonsei evaluated Wavelet, we were surprised that non-invasive fetal EEG was feasible. It's been groundbreaking," said Dr. Ja-Young Kwon, Director of the Smart Healthcare Center at Yonsei University Institute for Digital Health, with 20 years of practice as a Maternal-Fetal Medicine Specialist. "EEG will become as universal as fetal heart rate monitoring. Across Asia, mothers are deeply concerned about neurodevelopmental delay. They will demand this technology."

Wavelet is currently being tested at three clinical sites and preparing for expanded trials.

"As partners, LA General and USC were excited to identify clinical testing sites for Wavelet's development of non-invasive fetal brain monitoring," said Dr. David Miller, leading Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialist and Director of the CHLA-USC Institute for Maternal-Fetal Health. "We are encouraged by results showing that fetal brain signals can be captured non-invasively and accurately, thus offering exciting promise as a new approach, which if successful, could transform the way we deliver babies."

Golden believes being an Aegis portfolio company accelerates not only product development, but global reach.

"This isn't about building a device," Golden said. "It's about building a new category in maternal health - one grounded in data, precision, and prevention. With Aegis, we can move faster and reach farther. And that means more babies starting life with the healthiest brain possible."

If successful, Wavelet's partnership with Aegis could usher in a new era in fetal medicine - one where brain health, not just heart rate, defines the standard of care.

Wavelet's early development was supported by a Grant from the Blavatnik Family Foundation.

About Wavelet Medical
Wavelet Medical (LinkedIn), founded by Liz Golden, Dr. Emily Lee, and Dr. Jose Cortes-Briones, has developed a non-invasive, AI-powered fetal monitoring solution that harnesses the clinical promise of EEG without compromising the health of the mother or baby. This type of monitoring holds the promise for better outcomes both for mother and child, by reducing the risk of brain injury during delivery and better matching C-sections or other interventions to clinically appropriate situations. The Wavelet device detects fetal brain signals through the mother's abdomen, extracting auditory signals and evaluating them to detect when there is fetal distress occurring in real-time.

About Aegis Ventures
Aegis Ventures is a NYC-based venture studio that partners with entrepreneurs and industry leaders to build and scale AI-native healthtech companies that tackle the hard problems in healthcare. The Aegis platform combines deep insights, aligned capital, and proprietary access to customers to substantially increase the velocity and success rate of the new companies we build. To learn more about Aegis, visit our website and follow us on LinkedIn.

Media Contact:
Kara Spak for Wavelet
[email protected]

SOURCE Wavelet