The most critical signals in high-stakes work are often invisible. A pilot's fatigue, a security analyst's distraction, or a surgeon's stress are cognitive states that precede error, but they are measured today by self-report or after the fact. A French startup, Human Augmented Brain Systems (HABS), is betting that the path to preventing those errors runs directly through the brain's electrical activity, captured in real time by a wearable sensor. Founded in 2023 and based on the Saclay research plateau, the company is developing what it calls a "cognitive infrastructure" for human-aware AI, decoding EEG brainwaves and biometric data into insights on fatigue, distraction, and emotional load [F6S].
A hardware wedge into regulated industries
HABS's initial product, Neoxa, is a frontal EEG sensor designed to be worn discreetly. The company describes it as an "emotional sensor" that uses AI to interpret signals related to pain and stress, with initial inspiration drawn from the challenge of assessing pain in nonverbal patients, like newborns [French Wikipedia, 2025]. The strategic wedge, however, is not in consumer wellness but in sectors where cognitive state carries operational or safety risk. HABS Secure, its other flagship offering, packages this sensor with a SaaS layer for mental state monitoring, targeting cybersecurity, defense, transportation, and healthcare [French Wikipedia, 2025]. The core proposition is pre-behavioral risk detection: identifying a drop in vigilance or a spike in stress before it translates into a missed threat or a procedural violation.
The team behind the signal
Founder and CEO Olivier Locufier came to neurotechnology from a background in cybersecurity and biometrics, having founded and sold several companies in those fields [Challenges.fr, 2025]. His motivation for starting HABS was reportedly personal, stemming from his daughter's leukemia treatment and the difficulties in assessing pain levels in infants [French Wikipedia, 2025]. The company claims a team of over 30 experts and a portfolio of 15 patents, though it has maintained a low public profile with limited named executive announcements [habs.ai]. Key appointments include Karim Deneyer, listed as CFO and EVP of Global Strategy, and Samuel Willer, noted as Sensora Director [LinkedIn Karim Deneyer, 2026] [RocketReach, 2026].
| Role | Name | Noted Background |
|---|---|---|
| Founder & CEO | Olivier Locufier | Cybersecurity, biometrics entrepreneurship [Challenges.fr, 2025] |
| CFO / EVP Global Strategy | Karim Deneyer | Listed in dual roles [LinkedIn Karim Deneyer, 2026] [RocketReach, 2026] |
| Sensora Director | Samuel Willer | Role focused on the cognitive intelligence engine [RocketReach, 2026] |
| Chief of Staff | Gilles le Guennec | Operational role [RocketReach, 2026] |
The long road to clinical validation
The ambition is significant, but the path is lined with technical and regulatory hurdles that define the neurotech field. EEG data is notoriously noisy, and isolating clean signals related to specific cognitive states outside a controlled lab environment remains a profound challenge. For any claim of detecting impairment or predicting error, the burden of clinical validation is immense. HABS has not published peer-reviewed studies to support its specific algorithms, and its go-to-market in sectors like healthcare and transportation would eventually require rigorous review by bodies like the FDA or European counterparts. The company's broader vision includes a "Brainwaves-as-a-Service" (BaaS) model and a "Cognitive Persona" profile, concepts that venture further into territory that will demand clear evidence of utility and safety [habs.ai].
- Signal fidelity. Extracting reliable, actionable cognitive metrics from a wearable EEG in dynamic real-world environments is an unsolved problem at scale. The company's 15+ patents will need to translate into demonstrable accuracy [habs.ai].
- Regulatory gatekeepers. Use in safety-critical or medical contexts would require clearance as a medical device, a multi-year, capital-intensive process with no guarantee of success.
- The adoption curve. Convincing organizations to monitor employees' brainwaves introduces deep cultural and privacy considerations that could slow enterprise sales, regardless of the technology's promise.
For the patient populations HABS's technology originally sought to help, such as nonverbal individuals or those in acute care, the standard of care today is often observational. Nurses and clinicians use behavioral pain scales, which are subjective and can miss subtler signs of distress. In operational settings like air traffic control or long-haul trucking, fatigue is managed through shift limits and self-reporting, blunt instruments that cannot account for individual variability. HABS is betting that an objective, biometric readout can create a new category of human performance management. The next twelve months will be telling; the company must move from concept and prototype to named pilot deployments in its target industries. Without those early lighthouse customers and the validation data they would provide, the brainwave signal may remain just that,a signal waiting for a receiver.
Sources
- [F6S] HABS company profile | https://www.f6s.com/company/habs.ai
- [French Wikipedia, 2025] Human Augmented Brain Systems | https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Augmented_Brain_Systems
- [Challenges.fr, 2025] Face à Neuralink d’Elon Musk, la start-up française HABS relève le défi | https://www.challenges.fr/entreprise/tech-numerique/face-a-neuralink-delon-musk-la-start-up-francaise-habs-releve-le-defi-de-decrypter-les-ondes-cerebrales_633985
- [habs.ai] HABS company website | https://habs.ai
- [LinkedIn Karim Deneyer, 2026] Karim Deneyer profile | https://www.linkedin.com/in/karimdeneyer/
- [RocketReach, 2026] Samuel Willer profile | https://rocketreach.co/samuel-willer-email_35451188
- [RocketReach, 2026] Gilles le Guennec profile | https://rocketreach.co/gilles-le-guennec-email_35451189