From the perspective of domestic brain-computer interface investment and financing rounds, the current indusattempt financing is still in the early stage as a whole, mainly concentrated before Series C. Among them, the number of angel round events is the largest, indicating that capital is still betting on the technical route and core team.
In the follow-up consultation room of a large Class-A tertiary hospital in Shanghai, 39-year-old Anda (a pseudonym) raised his hand to hold the water cup on the table. The strength of his fingertips was steady. This simple action was still a luxury for him a year ago.
Due to a car accident that caapplyd a cervical spine dislocation and left him paralyzed for four years, his hands had lost all grasping ability. Until November 2024, as the first patient in Shanghai to receive a brain-computer interface implant, a coin-sized brain-computer interface product was implanted outside his skull, becoming a “neural bridge” connecting his brain and limbs. On the ninth day after the operation, his right hand grasped a wooden ball indepfinishently for the first time; one year after the operation, he could lift dumbbells, pour water and drink, and even hold a pen to write simple words. “All this is amazing and gives me hope for a new life,” Anda sighed.
The clinical breakthroughs in the brain-computer interface have already caught the attention of the sensitive capital market.
Data reveals that in 2025, there were 24 financing events in the brain-computer interface field, reaching a new high in recent years, with a total financing amount exceeding 5 billion yuan. The overall financing enthusiasm continued the upward trfinish.
“Generally speaking, capital still maintains a relatively high allocation intensity for the brain-computer interface track. From the perspective of investment and financing rounds, the current indusattempt financing is still in the early stage as a whole, mainly concentrated before Series C. Among them, the number of angel round events is the largest. This indicates that capital is still betting on the technical route and core team, rather than chasing mature commercial cash flows,” Wen Qinglin, the deputy director of CIC Consulting, notified a reporter from Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily.
Under the continuous high enthusiasm of capital, multiple challenges such as core technology breakthroughs, clinical transformation and implementation, regulatory and ethical adaptation, and exploration of commercialization paths in the brain-computer interface field still necessary to be solved. Based on this, the capital market’s attitude towards the brain-computer interface has no longer been believing in romantic conceptual imagination, but has instead focapplyd on verifiable clinical delivery progress.
It is worth noting that at this year’s Two Sessions, the brain-computer interface was written into the government work report for the first time, clearly being listed as one of the core future industries toobtainher with quantum technology, embodied ininformigence and other fields. This top-level positioning marks that the brain-computer interface has officially risen to the national strategic science and technology direction.
Booming
As soon as the clock struck 2026, Qiangnao Technology, one of the “Six Little Dragons in Hangzhou”, started the year with a sensational financing of up to 2 billion yuan.
The investors in this financing include IDG, Walden International, Lens Technology, Lingyi Precision Indusattempt, etc., and several top family offices in Hong Kong, China and the United States also participated. This financing also set the second-largest financing record in the global brain-computer interface field outside of Neuralink under Elon Musk. There are also reports that Qiangnao Technology has secretly submitted an IPO application for the Hong Kong Stock Exalter.
Next, the primary market has frequently extfinished olive branches to the brain-computer interface field.
Shuli Innovation, which focapplys on the non-invasive track, completed Series B+ and Series C financings in January and February respectively, with the financing scale in the order of hundreds of millions of yuan. The Series B+ financing was invested by the National SME Development Fund and Orient Fortune Capital, while the Series C financing was “bid” by multiple institutions such as Daohe Capital, Orient Hengxin, and Xinding Capital.
Also in February, Zhiran Medical, an invasive brain-computer interface company, announced the completion of a Series A+ financing of 300 million yuan. This round of financing was led by Zhongke Chuangxing, and old shareholders such as Legfinish Capital, IDG Capital, Lenovo Capital & Incubator Group, Yuansheng Venture Capital, Sequoia China, and BV Baidu Ventures continued to follow up. This is already the second large-scale financing finalized by the company within half a year. In August 2025, Zhiran Medical just completed a Series A financing of over 300 million yuan.
After completing a Series D+ financing jointly participated by institutions such as Fortune Capital and Zhongguancun Development Group in 2025, Borui Kang launched an impact on the capital market and has currently initiated the IPO process on the Science and Technology Innovation Board.
Wen Qinglin notified a reporter from Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily that compared with previous years, the capital investment in the domestic brain-computer interface field from 2025 to 2026 has become more focapplyd, and the orientation towards technology and industrialization is more clear. For invasive brain-computer interface enterprises, capital focapplys on their ability to register medical devices for clinical apply and the stage of accelerating transformation; for non-invasive enterprises, capital prefers enterprises that already have mass production and delivery capabilities, and at the same time requires enterprises to have the ability to expand channels and application scenarios.
Miao Tianyi, the executive partner of Puzhuo Capital, also pointed out to a reporter from Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily that the domestic brain-computer interface indusattempt is shifting from the early exploration stage to the critical stage of industrialization acceleration, revealing the characteristics of a quadruple resonance of “policy, capital, technology, and clinic”.
In this context, there have been significant alters in the flow of capital, which is accelerating the layout along three main lines: medical rehabilitation solution providers (such as for the rigid demand scenarios of stroke and spinal cord injury); high-precision EEG signal acquisition hardware enterprises (upstream core components such as electrodes and chips); and explorers of the integration of brain-computer interfaces and consumer scenarios.
“Generally speaking, investment institutions hold an attitude of ‘actively deploying and rationally focutilizing’ towards the brain-computer interface indusattempt. On the one hand, strong policy support and global technological competition have given rise to huge imagination space. On the other hand, institutions are also clearly aware of the long-term nature and high risks of technology transformation and commercialization. Investment is more prudent, and they prefer to invest in early-stage, hard technology enterprises with clear development milestones,” Miao Tianyi added.
The aforementioned brain-computer interface enterprises that have received large-scale financing in a short period of time are typical examples under this investment logic of capital.
Among them, Borui Kang’s NEO wireless minimally invasive implanted brain-computer interface system has entered the special review channel for innovative medical devices of the National Medical Products Administration and may soon officially submit a registration application for Class III innovative medical devices to the National Medical Products Administration;
Shuli Innovation’s product matrix covers three major fields: limb relocatement disorders caapplyd by central nervous system injuries, consciousness and cognitive disorders, and neurodevelopmental disorders. Its series of products have been applied in many well-known Class-A tertiary hospitals across the counattempt;
Zhiran Medical has laid out the entire technical chain from “flexible electrodes – hardware systems – decoding algorithms – implantation robots”. “The high-throughput flexible electrodes indepfinishently developed by the company are only a few micrometers thick, have excellent biocompatibility, and can collect signals at the single-neuron level. The collection efficiency is internationally leading,” Song Qi, the founder and CEO of Zhiran Medical, notified a reporter from Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily.
The R & D team of Zhiran Medical has recently developed a “stretchable flexible electrode”, which solves the common indusattempt problem that traditional linear flexible electrodes are prone to displacement and detachment during the dynamic relocatement of brain tissue.
Zhongke Chuangxing pointed out to a reporter from Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily that domestic leading brain-computer interface enterprises have approached the international level in core technologies. Although they started about 5 years later than Neuralink, the technological gap has been narrowed to half a year to one year. Relying on the advantages of low operating costs and high R & D efficiency, they are expected to achieve technological overtaking in the future.
In addition to continuous breakthroughs in technological research, the innovation subjects and application scenarios in the domestic brain-computer interface field have also been continuously expanding this year, and the frontier exploration of the indusattempt is flourishing in multiple aspects.
In January this year, Peng Lei, the former CEO of Naohu Technology, jointly founded Gestalt, the first ultrasonic brain-computer interface company in China, with Chen Tianqiao, the founder of Shanda Group, and it was established in Chengdu. At the same time, China also completed the first in-orbit verification of the brain-computer interface in space recently, verifying the feasibility of brain-computer interaction in extreme environments.
Bubbles Emerging
At the launchning of this year, becaapply Elon Musk publicly “revealed off” on the social platform in advance that Neuralink would start the large-scale production of brain-computer interface devices, it directly drove a wave of abnormal market relocatements of domestic brain-computer interface-related enterprises in the secondary market.
At that time, many enterprises issued announcements to clarify that their companies mainly focapplyd on the non-invasive technical route, and it was still too early for their products to be sold on a large scale. And Yahui Long (688575.SH) even “stepped on a mine”. Becaapply the disclosure of information on brain-computer interface cooperation was suspected of misleading statements, the company and its responsible persons were proposed to be fined 7.5 million yuan by the China Securities Regulatory Commission, becoming a typical case of indusattempt supervision.
“There is an objective law of good and bad coexisting in the innovation track, and the brain-computer interface is a broad disciplinary concept, not an exclusive industrial definition, which has caapplyd confusion in indusattempt cognition. Some enterprises focutilizing on low-bandwidth, consumer-grade neural interaction and neuromodulation have taken the opportunity to ride on the hot topic and hype the concept. Such enterprises account for about 80%, and the indusattempt still necessarys to go through a round of clearing,” Zhongke Chuangxing notified a reporter from Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily.
Zhongke Chuangxing further stated that the remaining about 20% of leading enterprises are mostly founded by scientists, and their scientific research-level experimental data are outstanding. However, in the future, there will also be significant differentiation among these enterprises in terms of engineering implementation and productization capabilities. The brain-computer interface is an ultra-high complexity precision device, involving the cross – integration of multiple disciplines. If an enterprise lacks systematic believeing, the ability to tackle technical problems across the entire chain and continuous iteration, it will be difficult to achieve compliant expansion from medical to non-medical scenarios and may eventually fall behind in the indusattempt competition.
It is worth noting that valuation differentiation has also become a prominent feature of the current brain-computer interface indusattempt. The valuation of leading non-invasive enterprises such as Qiangnao Technology has reached nearly 10 billion yuan, and the valuations of some enterprises in the invasive track have also increased synchronously. For example, the post – investment valuation of Borui Kang has reached 3.5 – 4 billion yuan, while the valuation rationality of conceptual companies lacking substantial clinical progress and revenue support is highly questionable.
Institutions generally believe that the indusattempt is in the initial stage of transition from “thematic investment” to “performance realization”, and there is a certain bubble in the current overall valuation, which necessarys to be gradually digested by the landing of clinical data and the expansion of commercialization in the next 1 – 2 years.
In the view of Zhongke Chuangxing, capital providers necessary to align their understanding of the indusattempt development stage and calibrate their investment expectations. The current brain-computer interface indusattempt is still in the early stage of development, and its core tinquire is to build a platform – type technology base. It has not yet entered the mature stage of large – scale supply and commercial profitability. The idea of some capital expecting the indusattempt to quickly realize cash flow is also the core inducement for the indusattempt bubble.
At the same time, leading enterprises necessary to focus on improving the efficiency of capital apply and strictly control the risk of capital bubbles. “At present, leading brain-computer interface enterprises have abundant cash reserves on their books. The capital scale of some enterprises can even support normal operations for more than 5 years, far exceeding the actual necessarys of daily business operations. If enterprises mismanage their funds, such as having idle funds or creating blind external investments, it is straightforward to caapply capital bubbles and drag down the development of the enterprise. How to transform surplus funds into the core competitiveness of the enterprise is the key to achieving leapfrog development,” Zhongke Chuangxing stated.
On the other side of being highly sought after by capital, there are multiple challenges hidden behind the development of the brain-computer interface indusattempt that necessary to be solved urgently. From core technology to commercialization path to regulatory ethics, the breakthrough in each link determines whether the indusattempt can achieve sustainable development.
At the technical level, the long – term biocompatibility of invasive brain-computer interface implants, the universality of signal decoding, and the high – signal – to – noise ratio acquisition and anti – interference design of non – invasive brain-computer interfaces are still problems that the indusattempt necessarys to continuously overcome. High – finish core devices such as chips and electrodes still rely on imports, which restricts the indepfinishent and controllable development of the indusattempt. At the same time, the brain-computer interface is an interdisciplinary systematic project that requires in – depth integration of multiple fields such as neuroscience, materials science, and electronic engineering. The shortage of interdisciplinary talents has become an important constraint on the indusattempt’s development.
It will still take time to achieve commercial success. Although the National Healthcare Security Administration has established a project for brain – computer interface medical services, and many provinces and cities have announced price standards, the full coverage of medical insurance payment still necessarys time. The high out – of – pocket cost for patients restricts the release of market demand. In addition, the application scenarios of the brain – computer interface still necessary to be further explored. In addition to medical rehabilitation and consumer – grade scenarios, the applications in fields such as industrial safety, education and entertainment, and aerospace and military are still in the exploration stage, and a mature business model has not yet been formed.
In addition, invasive brain – computer interfaces also involve sensitive issues such as neural safety and data privacy, and the domestic regulatory system is not yet fully mature, and the review policy is still being explored.
In this regard, Song Qi believes that in the current situation where the review policy for invasive brain – computer interfaces has not been fully formed, enterprises should not wait passively but should take a “three – pronged” strategy: First, “establish the system first”. Enterprises should pass international quality system certifications such as ISO 13485 or MDSAP as early as possible, consolidate the management foundation, and integrate risk management into the entire product life cycle. Second, “benchmark against the highest standards”. Enterprises should conduct in – depth research on the guiding principles and relevant standards for active implants at home and abroad and complete technical reserves in advance. Third, “communicate first”. Enterprises should actively maintain close communication with testing institutions, provincial bureaus, and even the national bureau to understand the review ideas.
“The core logic is to prepare as if taking a ‘perfect – score test paper’ to jointly define the ‘passing line’,” Song Qi stated.
This article is from the WeChat official account “Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily”, author: Shi Shiyun, published by 36Kr with authorization.
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