Wednesday, October 7, 2026
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Market Moves

Bridge Neurotech raises $13.5 million to build a brain-computer interface without surgery

Bridge Neurotech, a Silicon Valley start-up founded in 2026 by Will Biederman, came out of stealth on 6 October with $13.5 million from General Catalyst, reMind Capital, Sunflower Capital, Scott Sandell and others to build a wearable brain-computer interface that images brain activity with functional ultrasound through the skull. It has signed a multi-year research and development agreement to license Butterfly Network's Ultrasound-on-Chip technology, with payments for technology access and development milestones and commitments to buy Butterfly hardware; the value was not disclosed. Biederman co-founded the ultrasound research group Forest Neurotech, which signed a five-year, $20 million co-development deal with Butterfly in 2023. Forest's other two co-founders, Sumner Norman and Tyson Aflalo, went on to co-found Merge Labs, which signed its own Butterfly licensing deal on 1 September. Bridge's first research study, which is observational, is enrolling healthy adults and adults whose skulls were repaired with PEEK or Longeviti implants in Redwood City, California.

Oct 8, 2026 · 5 min read

Market Moves

MintNeuro raises $5 million to supply purpose-built chips to neural device makers

MintNeuro, a London semiconductor company spun out of Imperial College London, announced a $5 million round on 7 October 2026 led by Odyssey Ventures, with 33East, JSK Investments and Alumni Ventures joining and Empirical Ventures, Jumpspace Ventures and other early investors investing again. It designs modular chips for neural sensing, signal processing and stimulation that device makers can build on in place of adapted general-purpose components or years of custom chip design. Its partners include Motif Neurotech, which announced a multi-year chip supply agreement with MintNeuro on 30 April for its depression implant, and Amber Therapeutics, whose co-founder Tim Denison chairs MintNeuro. The money will fund product launches, delivery of pre-release chips to partners, a larger team and a stronger US presence. MintNeuro's last disclosed equity round was £1 million in November 2024.

Oct 8 · 4 min read

Industry News

Nobel laureate Karl Deisseroth says light-based brain-computer interfaces will take a little time to build

Karl Deisseroth of Stanford University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute shares the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, announced on 5 October, with Peter Hegemann of Humboldt University of Berlin and Georg Nagel of the University of Würzburg for discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics, the method of making chosen nerve cells switch on or off in response to light. Asked what the work means for neurotechnology devices, Deisseroth said brain-computer interfaces mostly run on electricity, recording activity and in some cases stimulating it, and that light could in principle do the same job but probably will take a little time to build. Optogenetics is closer to patients in two other forms. The FDA has accepted Nanoscope Therapeutics' application for MOGENRY, a one-time optogenetic eye injection for adults with retinitis pigmentosa and severe vision loss, with a decision expected in the first half of 2027. MapLight Therapeutics, which Deisseroth co-founded in 2018, plans a Phase 3 trial of a schizophrenia drug whose development drew on optogenetic laboratory work.

Oct 7 · 6 min read

Industry News

Science Corp's PRIMA implant patients averaged a 29-letter vision gain at three years

Science Corporation reported on 5 October 2026 that the 18 patients still assessed for vision at 36 months in PRIMAvera, the pivotal trial of its PRIMA retinal implant for blindness from geographic atrophy in age-related macular degeneration, read on average 29 more letters on a standard eye chart than before surgery. At 12 months the 32 patients then assessed had gained 24.5 letters with PRIMA glasses. At 36 months, 14 of the 18 (78 percent) had gained at least 15 letters. No new safety signal appeared between months 12 and 36, and natural vision in the implanted eye stayed stable. The trial implanted 38 patients at 17 sites in five European countries; 27 were evaluable for safety and 18 for efficacy at 36 months. The results were presented at the EURETINA congress in Vienna and have not yet been peer reviewed. PRIMA went on sale in Europe in July 2026, is now also available in the UK, and is pending FDA approval in the United States.

Oct 6 · 4 min read

Industry News

Tianjin University releases a 3-gram brain-signal recorder that sits hidden in the hair

Tianjin University's Haihe Laboratory of Brain-Computer Interaction and Human-Machine Integration and its partner Shengong Diting (Tianjin) Technology announced the Shengong Xumi Brain Cube on 30 September 2026, a non-invasive EEG device weighing 3 grams and measuring about 2 cubic centimetres, with electrodes, circuitry, battery and wireless link in one unit fixed to the scalp among the hair. It records at 1,000 samples a second for 8 to 10 hours, and its developers call it the smallest and lightest non-invasive brain-computer interface system yet made. The lab says it is building safety management models around the device for workers in China's licensed high-risk trades, with guidance from special-operations and emergency-management departments. China's national BCI plan names hazardous materials, nuclear, mining and power as industries to pilot the technology first.

Oct 4 · 3 min read

Industry News

Neuralink cuts some implant users' calibration from 10 minutes a day to 10 minutes a week

Neuralink said on 1 October 2026 that participants in its clinical trial have streamed more than 50,000 hours of unlabelled brain recordings during everyday use of its implant, and that it has used participants' own recordings to pretrain participant-specific models that steady the software turning brain signals into cursor movement. Calibration had averaged 55 minutes a week across participants, typically 10 minutes at the start of each day; some participants now calibrate for 10 minutes a week. Six participants set personal bests on Neuralink's cursor test, and one reached 11.32 bits per second, which the company calls a record for a brain-computer interface. Every live result came from a model trained on a single participant's data, and models pooled across participants have not yet performed better. Neuralink's stated next goals are calibrating once, never calibrating, and a shared 'API for the motor cortex' for developers.

Oct 3 · 5 min read

Policy & Regulation

California bans employers from using AI tools to collect workers' neural data

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1883 on 30 September 2026, the last day he could act on bills this session. From 1 January 2027 the law, by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles), bars employers from using workplace surveillance tools that use artificial intelligence to collect employees' neural data or to recognise, infer or predict their emotional state. It defines neural data as information generated by measuring activity in an employee's central or peripheral nervous system, covers public as well as private employers, and allows penalties of up to $500 per violation, enforced by the Labor Commissioner and public prosecutors. Tools used to ensure safety, and some federally regulated aerospace and defence work, are exempt. In his signing message Newsom said the law lacks key definitions and asked the Legislature to refine it. Three days earlier he vetoed AB 1542, leaving consumers with an opt-out over the sale of the same category of data.

Oct 2 · 7 min read

Industry News

NeuroXess participant uses his brain implant to steer AI from sketch to 3D-printed figurine

NeuroXess (脑虎科技), the Shanghai brain-computer interface developer, disclosed on 30 September 2026 that a man with a C4 spinal cord injury, implanted in April 2026 with its fully implanted, fully wireless Triple-Full system, used it to draw a sketch and enter prompts, from which a large AI model generated design options and one was 3D-printed as a figurine. Using AI smart glasses and NeuroXess's XessOS software, he also adjusted his hospital bed and switched lights and household devices by confirming his intent. NeuroXess describes the work as clinical exploration and released no speed or accuracy figures. The Triple-Full system is in a registration trial led at Huashan Hospital that began on 7 July 2026, with an estimated 32 participants and primary completion estimated for 30 January 2027, and entered the National Medical Products Administration's innovative device review in July.

Oct 2 · 6 min read

Market Moves

Neuracle has sold 13 brain implants at a listed RMB 475,000 each since July

Neuracle Technology (Shanghai) (博睿康), maker of China's first approved invasive brain-computer interface, has sold 13 NEO-ONE SCI implant systems and implanted 8 since its first commercial sale in July 2026, with more than 70 more in firm and intended orders. The system is listed at RMB 475,000 per set on procurement platforms in 27 provinces and is not covered by any basic medical insurance catalogue. Neuracle made the figures public on 29 September 2026 in its answers to the Shanghai Stock Exchange's first round of questions on its STAR Market listing application, 110 days after the application was accepted. First-half 2026 revenue was RMB 46.3 million, almost all from its non-invasive business and none from the implant, with a net loss of RMB 65.5 million. No listing committee meeting has been scheduled. None of the best-known Western developers of implanted BCIs, Neuralink, Synchron, Precision Neuroscience, Paradromics and Blackrock Neurotech, is publicly listed.

Oct 1 · 6 min read