Mind Over Money: Braintech Funding Booms As Musk’s Neuralink Closes Record Round
Neuralink, the Elon Musk-founded brain implant startup, on Monday officially announced a $650 million Series E funding round, confirming earlier reports that the Fremont, California-based company was set to close on a massive raise.
The raise, which reportedly values Neuralink at $9 billion, is by far the largest for a startup working on brain-computer interface technology, but comes as funding to neuroscience startups overall is set to rise sharply this year. All told, funding to the broader category of neuroscience startups totaled $896 million last year and is on track to reach $1.4 billion in 2025, Crunchbase data shows.
Neuralink has now raised a total of $1.3 billion since its founding in 2016, Crunchbase data shows. It received its latest backing from Ark Investment Management, DFJ Growth, Founders Fund, G42, Human Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Qatar Investment Authority, Sequoia Capital, Thrive Capital, Valor Equity Partners and Vy Capital, among others.
Its brain implants are designed to treat neurological disorders such as paralysis and blindness. The company said five people with “severe paralysis” are now using Neuralink technology “to control digital and physical devices with their thoughts, marking a profound step toward helping restore independence.”
The company’s brain implant device, which has a chip that processes neural signals that can be transmitted to computers or phones, is entering clinical trials.
While Neuralink is the most well-funded of the group, other companies working on computer-brain interfaces have also raised significant venture backing, a review of Crunchbase data shows.
To illustrate, we put together a curated list of some of the most well-funded companies in the space.
They include Science Corp., which says it’s developing devices “aimed at restoring vision, cognition, and mobility to patients who have lost it.” The Alameda, California-based company announced in April that it had raised $104 million in a round led by Khosla Ventures. (The financing was in the form of a convertible note, according to Crunchbase data). The company has raised a total of $177.3 million since its 2021 inception. Besides Khosla, investors include Artis Ventures, Serafund and Unbound Ventures, among others.
Another example is China’s Stairway Medical, a Neuralink competitor that raised a $48 million Series B funding round in February, reportedly the largest-ever funding round for a startup in the field in that country. It’s unclear how much the company raised in previous venture rounds.
Meanwhile, another Neuralink competitor, Austin, Texas-based Paradromics, announced on June 1 that it had performed its first human surgery using its Connexus Brain-Computer Interface. Paradromics has raised a total of $108.4 million in funding since its 2015 inception, according to Crunchbase data. Investors include Fusion Fund, FJ Labs, 15th Rock, Alpha Edison and DARPA.
Related Crunchbase list:
Illustration: Dom Guzman
