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 is 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 [French Wikipedia, 2025]. The company claims a team of over 30 experts and a portfolio of 15 patents [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 |
|---|---|
| Founder & CEO | Olivier Locufier |
| CFO / EVP Global Strategy | Karim Deneyer |
| Sensora Director | Samuel Willer |
| Chief of Staff | Gilles le Guennec |
The long road to clinical validation
The ambition is significant, but the path is lined with technical and regulatory hurdles. EEG data is notoriously noisy, and isolating clean signals related to specific cognitive states outside a controlled lab environment remains a profound challenge. 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 [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.
- The adoption curve. Convincing organizations to monitor employees' brainwaves introduces deep cultural and privacy considerations that could slow enterprise sales.
For the patient populations HABS's technology originally sought to help, the standard of care today is often observational. 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.