Overview

BrainCo is one of China’s leading non-invasive brain-computer interface companies. The company was founded in 2015 in Somerville, Massachusetts by Bicheng Han while pursuing his PhD at Harvard University’s Center for Brain Science, and was incubated through the Harvard Innovation Labs. The company is now headquartered in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, with a continuing US office in Somerville. BrainCo has been named one of Hangzhou’s “Six Little Dragons” — the city’s most prized technology startups, a group that also includes AI company Deepseek and robotics company Unitree. The company’s Chinese corporate entity is Zhejiang Qiangnao Technology Co., Ltd.

Product portfolio

BrainCo develops non-invasive BCI technology across consumer, educational, and medical applications. Its flagship intelligent bionic prosthetic hand, marketed under the BrainRobotics brand, uses EMG and EEG signals to enable dexterous motor control for upper-limb amputees. The product received FDA certification on 7 November 2022. BrainCo also develops Focus, an EEG-based headband for education and attention training, which has been deployed in Chinese schools and among US Olympic training programs.

Funding and IPO path

BrainCo closed a $286 million (CNY 2 billion) financing round in January 2026, co-led by IDG Capital and Walden International (the investment firm founded by former Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan), with strategic participation from Lens Technology and Omnivision Integrated Circuits Group. The round was the world’s second-largest single BCI financing to date, after Neuralink’s $650 million Series E in mid-2025.

The company confidentially filed for a Hong Kong IPO on 3 January 2026, working with CICC and UBS as underwriters, with the prospectus proposing approximately 1.2 billion shares at HK$5-7 per share and an expected pricing window of March-April 2026. As of late May 2026, the IPO had not yet been publicly priced.

Recent partnerships

In May 2026, BrainCo (under its Chinese entity Qiangnao Technology) launched a Smart Prosthetics Programme with The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, providing free smart bionic limbs to 60 Hong Kong amputees using its non-invasive BCI technology.

Strategic position

BrainCo is one of the few commercial-stage Chinese BCI companies with consumer products already on the market, and bridges the gap between laboratory research and mass-market non-invasive neurotechnology. The company reported its first full-year profitability in 2025, primarily driven by consumer-focused products. Its dual focus on bionic prosthetics and consumer EEG positions it for multiple revenue streams as the broader BCI market expands.