Fluent raised AUD $2M in pre-seed funding to advance its subscalp interface for speech restoration. The University of Melbourne spinout's device sits beneath the scalp but outside the skull, capturing motor cortex signals with a lower surgical burden than the intracortical, endovascular, and ECoG approaches of its competitors. Preliminary testing used 144 electrodes to record brain activity as participants spoke, mimed, and imagined speaking, with results the company says are comparable to intracranial electrodes. The round drew backing from the University of Melbourne's Genesis Pre-Seed Fund, Pacific Channel, and Jumpspace Ventures, among others.