Not long ago, we published an article analyzing the IPO ambitions of two Chinese neurotech leaders, BrainCo and Neuracle. Over the last fortnight, both companies continued to lead China's push. Neuracle completed its first commercial NEO implant, while BrainCo tried its hand at moving robotic hands non-invasively.Two of the big dogs in the US also made strong progress. Science secured its long-awaited CE mark for PRIMA, allowing the firm to formally launch the vision-restoring implant in Europe. Precision, meanwhile, showed what is possible with a minimally invasive implant, demonstrating device control by an able-bodied person using its Layer 7 interface.Rounding off the sixth Market Notes edition, we have a BCI first-in-human, a 510(k) in diagnostics, investment across the field, and a publicly playable demo of an AI model optimized with lab-grown neurons.
Precision Neuroscience demonstrated thought-controlled cursor movement, gaming, and smartphone navigation in an able-bodied person, which it describes as the first time such control has been achieved without penetrating brain tissue. Its Layer 7 array rests on the cortical surface. Precision has tested Layer 7 in nearly 100 participants across 18 US medical centres, including people without paralysis undergoing epilepsy or tumour surgery. The company separately named BrainGate pioneer John Donoghue as a scientific advisor.
ABILITY Neurotech performed its first-in-human procedure, recording neural data from a patient during brain tumour surgery at the Technical University of Munich. The intraoperative study will enrol up to five patients, each contributing 20 to 30 minutes of recording, and marks the company's entry into clinical testing. ABILITY's fully implantable system uses a wireless optical link designed to transmit high-bandwidth neural data over the long term. A separate chronic implantation study in ALS patients is scheduled for later this year.
Neuracle completed the world's first commercial implant of a modern brain-computer interface, placing its coin-sized NEO device in a patient who had lost hand function after a spinal cord injury a decade ago. Performed at Huashan Hospital in Shanghai, the procedure places the eight-electrode implant on the surface of the brain, where it reads motor intent and drives a robotic glove. NEO received Chinese regulatory approval in March, making it the first invasive BCI cleared for commercial use by any national regulator. Neuracle is actively exploring IPO opportunities.
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Science received a CE Mark for its PRIMA retinal implant, launching it commercially across Europe. The 2mm photovoltaic chip sits beneath the retina and pairs with camera-equipped glasses that beam near-infrared light to power it, activating the retina directly when rods and cones have been lost. In trials, 80% of patients with advanced macular degeneration regained the ability to read letters, numbers, and words. Led by former Neuralink president Max Hodak, Science expects its first commercial implant in Germany.
Brainsway made a $3M minority equity investment in Radial Health as part of Radial's Series A. Radial operates a management services organisation supporting a national network of Brain Medicine clinics that deliver non-invasive psychiatric treatments including Deep TMS. For Brainsway, the stake continues a strategy of taking positions in mental health provider networks to expand adoption of its technology. It follows a similar minority investment the company made in Hopemark Health earlier this year.
Neuvotion announced the commercialisation of its brain-body interface portfolio, timed alongside a clinical study published in Nature Medicine. The platform combines wearable muscle stimulation, spinal neuromodulation, and a minimally invasive BCI to restore movement and sensation after stroke or spinal cord injury. Its first product, the FDA-cleared NeuStim, launches this fall and uses AI-guided electrical stimulation to infer a user's intended movement and assist it.
Aurenar closed an oversubscribed $5.7M seed round co-led by the American Heart Association's Go Red for Women Venture Fund and Solas BioVentures. The St. Louis company's V-Link platform delivers non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation through the outer ear to reduce cerebral vasospasm, a dangerous narrowing of blood vessels that follows a brain haemorrhage. A university trial reported a more than 40% reduction in moderate-to-severe vasospasm. The round follows the device's June FDA Breakthrough Device designation and funds development toward a pivotal trial.
Epitel raised $26M in a Series B co-led by Catalyst Health Ventures and Genoa Ventures to expand its REMI wireless EEG monitoring system. Traditional EEG typically captures only up to 72 hours, while seizures can occur days or weeks apart. REMI's wearable sensors record brain activity at home for weeks at a time, with an AI layer that flags potential seizures for clinician review. Roughly 40% of Americans with seizures lack access to EEG, in part because only 27% of US hospitals have the capacity. The funding will build out Epitel's commercial team.
VoxNeuro received FDA 510(k) clearance for its cfNI software, which analyses EEG and event-related potentials to give clinicians an objective measure of cognitive function. The prescription-use software scores a patient's brain responses during standardised tasks and compares them against a reference database of neurologically healthy adults. VoxNeuro positions cfNI as a repeatable physiological complement to questionnaires and effort-based tests. The company is collecting data to support a potential label expansion to older adults.
BrainCo launched an integrated brain-to-robot AI development platform at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai. A user wearing a lightweight EEG headset thinks about a movement, and AI algorithms decode the intent and convert it into commands that direct a robotic arm, dog, or humanoid. The company says developers without prior BCI experience can get a robot moving from brain signals in about ten minutes. The platform is at the demonstration stage, with no commercial launch date disclosed.
The Biological Computing Co. released a playable proof-of-concept for its neurally-optimised AI software, applying its technology to an interactive video model trained on Minecraft gameplay. The San Francisco company studies how living neurons process information, then translates those principles into software that makes AI models more efficient. Real neurons are used during the optimisation process, but the resulting model runs on conventional GPUs, so users need no biological hardware. TBC plans to launch its first commercial neurally-optimised text-to-video model later this year.
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