Tag: functional-ultrasound

5 articles

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

Market Moves

BCI-Sonics closes RMB 200 million Pre-A led by HongShan and Yunqi Partners

Shanghai-headquartered non-invasive brain-computer interface company BCI-Sonics closed a RMB 200 million (~USD 28 million) Pre-A financing round on Tuesday 22 September 2026, co-led by HongShan (the post-2023 rebrand of Sequoia China under Neil Shen) and Yunqi Partners. New participants included Proxima Capital, Oriza Holdings, Shanghai's Xuhui Sci-Tech Innovation Investment, and Moral Stone Investment. Existing investors Matrix Partners China (MPCi) and Delian Capital followed on. Xunguang Capital served as exclusive financial advisor. Total capital raised since 2025 founding is roughly RMB 300 million. The company was founded by Dr. Li Xin, formerly Head of GE Global Research Center China and a joint PhD graduate of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Fraunhofer IGD in Germany. BCI-Sonics' modality is low-intensity transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS/LIFU) for brain stimulation, paired with a multimodal reading system combining functional ultrasound (fUS), EEG, fMRI and PET, and passive cavitation detection for safety monitoring. Three product lines are in development: a Research toolchain for neuroscience labs (unveiled at CNS 2026 in September), a Clinical portfolio targeting pain, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, addiction, sleep, and ultrasound-mediated blood-brain-barrier opening for CNS drug delivery, and a Technology/Consumer wearable BCI terminal for sleep, focus and emotion. Closed-loop ultrasound BCI clinical trials are scheduled to enter Q1 2027. The Pre-A closed the same day Premier Li Qiang inspected BCI products in Shanghai and directed the establishment of future-industry investment-growth and risk-sharing mechanisms and 'patient capital' (耐心资本) expansion.

Sep 24

Industry News

Arbor Neuroscience CEO Philip Sabes tells Shanghai BCI symposium that prediction is the neuromodulation bottleneck

Philip Sabes, a Neuralink co-founder (full-time 2017 to 2020) and now CEO of Arbor Neuroscience, delivered a keynote at the BCI Inno+ Salon International Symposium on Brain-Computer Interface in Shanghai on 14 September 2026. His stated thesis was that the real bottleneck in neuromodulation is prediction: because clinicians cannot reliably predict what will happen after brain stimulation, treatment outcomes are inconsistent. Sabes summarised current practice as 'poke and hope' and positioned Arbor's approach as 'predict and treat'. Arbor Neuroscience is the September 2026 rebrand of Forest Neurotech, a functional-ultrasound-imaging Focused Research Organization founded by Sumner Norman, Tyson Aflalo and Will Biederman inside Convergent Research. The symposium was hosted by the BCI Innovation and Transformation Center at Brain Intelligence World in Shanghai's Minhang District, a Shanghai state-backed partnership between Minhang District, Lingang Group, Shanghai State Investment Corp and Huashan Hospital (a Fudan University teaching hospital), positioned as China's first BCI industry cluster. Sabes made no public statement on US and China BCI competition, export controls, or the recent NSCEB and BIS enforcement actions.

Sep 19

Market Moves

Gestala closes US$62 million Angel+ round for ultrasound BCI, opens Shanghai NeuroAI headquarters

Gestala (格式塔科技), a Chinese non-invasive ultrasound brain-computer interface company led by founder and CEO Phoenix Peng, announced on 3 July 2026 that it had closed a US$62 million Angel+ financing round and formally opened a Shanghai NeuroAI headquarters. The company is the third Chinese ultrasound BCI startup to disclose funding within ten days, alongside Sisen Technology (1 July 2026) and Huachao Shenkong.

Jul 3