Flow Neuroscience

Flow Neuroscience develops a home-use depression treatment combining a transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) headset with a companion behavioural therapy app. The treatment is indicated for adults 18 and older with a diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder and can be used either as a standalone therapy or alongside antidepressant medication. Patients order the headset, follow a guided programme of daily therapy and stimulation sessions through the app, and track symptom change using the MADRS-s scale; clinicians have access to a remote monitoring platform showing patient adherence and outcomes, and can adjust stimulation schedules subject to qualification and training.

The company was co-founded by Daniel Månsson, a clinical psychologist, and Erik Rehn, an engineer/neuroscientist, who met in 2012 while working at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and launched Flow in January 2016. Månsson served as CEO at the time of the 2021 Series A; Erin Lee joined as CEO in 2022, having previously worked at Google, Uber and Babylon. Flow's clinical approach is advised by psychiatrists from Harvard University, King's College London and Stanford University, including Dr Andrew Nierenberg, Prof Allan Young, Dr Corey Keller and Prof Joan A. Camprodon.

The device is a Class IIa CE-marked medical device approved by the British Standards Institution and tested to IEC 60601 electrical safety standards, with certifications in the UK, EU, Switzerland, Norway, Hong Kong, Brazil and Australia. A US-facing site states the treatment (Flow FL-100) is FDA approved as a first-line home-based neuromodulation treatment without requiring prior medication failure, with US availability planned for September 2026.

Founding story

Daniel Månsson, a clinical psychologist, and Erik Rehn, an engineer, met in 2012 while working at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, combining backgrounds in clinical psychology, computer networks, computational neuroscience and electrical engineering. They launched Flow in January 2016 with the aim of using science and technology to help people manage depression symptoms and mental wellness.

Business model

Flow sells a hardware headset paired with a companion app directly to consumers, backed by a 30-day money-back guarantee, and also distributes through healthcare channels — private practice clinics and NHS services — supported by a clinician-facing remote monitoring platform, complimentary training, clinical support and demo devices.

Sales of the Flow headset and associated app-delivered treatment programme to individual users, and supply to clinics and NHS services that prescribe or provide the device to patients.

Traction

The company reports use across 14 NHS services with independently published results, pilots in five NHS trusts and NHS Practitioner Health, more than 500 private practice clinics using Flow (a clinician page also cites 300+ clinics globally), over 30,000 real-world users and 900,000 completed stimulation sessions, and real-world evidence drawn from more than 40,000 users.

Latest developments

The EMPOWER trial (Woodham et al., Nature Medicine, 2024), a 10-week double-blind, placebo-controlled randomised study of 173 adults with moderate to severe unipolar depression, reported 57.5% MADRS remission in the active group and a primary-endpoint between-group HDRS-17 difference of -2.3 points in favour of active treatment (p=0.012). The company's US site states that Flow FL-100 is FDA approved and will be available in the US in September 2026, and reports a real-world self-reported side-effect incidence of 4.5% across more than 40,000 users.