BrainCo
Chinese non-invasive BCI company developing brainwave technology and intelligent bionic prosthetics. Founded in 2015 by Bicheng Han, incubated at Harvard Innovation Labs, headquartered in Hangzhou. Raised $286 million (CNY 2 billion) in January 2026 and confidentially filed for a Hong Kong IPO the same month.
Overview
BrainCo is a non-invasive brain-computer interface company. 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”, a group of local technology startups 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 510(k) clearance (K220002) on 9 September 2022. BrainCo also develops Focus, an EEG-based headband for education and attention training, which has been deployed in Chinese schools.
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 company confidentially filed for a Hong Kong IPO in January 2026 (first reported by Bloomberg on 12 January), with CICC and UBS as joint sponsors. The confidential prospectus is not public, and as of September 2026 no hearing, pricing or listing had been reported.
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 links laboratory research to mass-market non-invasive neurotechnology. Its dual focus on bionic prosthetics and consumer EEG positions it for multiple revenue streams as the broader BCI market expands.