「NeuroXess」Raises 700 Million Yuan in Series B Financing, the "Three-Comprehensive" Brain-Computer Interface System Enters Registration Clinical Trial | 36Kr Exclusive

Written by Hu Xiangyun

Edited by Hai Ruojing

36Kr has learned that BrainCo Technologies has completed a RMB 700 million Series B financing. This round of financing was jointly led by SDIC Juli, Shenzhen Venture Capital Group and Qinzhi Capital, with follow-on investments from institutions including SMIC Puhua, Huangpu Investment, Jiwu Capital, IDG Capital, Xichen Capital, Junxi Capital, Huafu Securities, Zhongwei Capital, Jiangxi Financial Holding, etc., while existing shareholders including Shanda and Zhongping Capital increased their stakes. The raised funds will be used for multi-center clinical trials, registration and approval of the "fully implanted, fully wireless, fully functional" ("Three-Full") brain-computer interface system, mass production construction of the super factory, as well as next-generation product R&D and the integrated exploration of BCI+AI.

From the perspective of institutional attributes, this round of financing is led by state-owned capital as a whole. In terms of industrial capital, leading institutions from tracks including semiconductors, medical devices and materials have gathered across boundaries.

Tao Hu, founder and Chief Scientist of BrainCo Technologies, introduced to 36Kr that there are two reasons for this arrangement: first, as brain-computer interface has been elevated to the national strategic level, the lead investment from state-owned capital can bring stronger policy support; second, it takes subsequent industrial collaboration into consideration. In his view, there are still no electrode companies, chip companies or algorithm companies dedicated to brain-computer interface in the current market. Therefore, only by joining hands with upstream and downstream partners to "build the entire brain-computer interface industry first" can the ceiling of the industry be raised higher.

In 2026, the situation where leading brain-computer interface companies are "scrambled for investment quota" is no longer an isolated case. According to Tao Hu's experience, 3 or 4 years ago, brain-computer interface was still a "relatively immature sci-fi concept" in the eyes of investors, and people were keen on stories about "the first in China", "the highest channel" or "the Chinese version of Neuralink". But today, brain-computer interface has become an industry that is taken seriously, and the market pays more attention to clinical effects, patient benefits, independent and controllable supply chain, and the final delivered products.

In terms of technology and products, BrainCo Technologies has independently developed the "Three-Full" brain-computer interface system that is fully implanted, fully wireless and fully functional. As the name suggests, full implantation means that all core components including the battery are implanted in the body with no exposed parts on the body surface; full wireless means that power supply and data transmission are completed wirelessly, so that patients will not be affected even when they take a shower, sleep or socialize; full function means that the same system can perform motion decoding, speech decoding and environmental control at the same time.

Tao Hu believes that the "Three-Full" solution can better avoid the infection risk of traditional implantation surgery, and is expected to collect real data continuously and stably. In traditional solutions, wires pass through the skin to connect external devices, which serves as a channel for bacteria to enter the intracranial space, leading to high infection risk. When powered by wires, patients are in a tense state, and the collected EEG data may not be the data generated under normal daily life. Full implantation plus full wireless is equivalent to blocking these two risk points.

In this sense, the brain-computer interface is no longer an experimental system that requires maintenance by external devices, but becomes an "implantable system that can work independently".

To achieve this, when designing the implantation solution, BrainCo Technologies chose to attach the flexible electrode to the surface of the cerebral cortex under the dura mater, and place high-heat units such as batteries, processors and antennas under the subcutaneous tissue of the chest. Tao Hu explained that inserting into the cerebral cortex seems to be more "precise", but with the shaking of brain tissue and changes in intracranial pressure, it is very easy to cause electrode displacement or falling off. In addition, once an immune reaction is triggered and the nerve is wrapped by inflammation, the signal will attenuate, and in severe cases, a second craniotomy will be required. When attached to the surface of the cortex, the signal quality is basically the same as that of deep insertion, but the long-term reliability is better. If the number of channels needs to be increased in the future, it is only necessary to increase the electrode density.

For patients, this reflects the consistent pursuit of BrainCo Technologies for "no brain damage, no brain overheating, and replicability", which means that the electrode does not puncture the brain parenchyma, the heat source is far away from the brain, the surgery adopts the mature DBS paradigm, and neurosurgeons can operate independently after training. "We hope this solution can bring back the dignity of patients."

According to the data provided by BrainCo Technologies, as of now, this solution has completed 65 clinical trials; in July this year, the "Three-Full" brain-computer interface system has officially entered the Class III medical device registration clinical stage, with Huashan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University taking the lead in carrying out GCP registration clinical trials, Professor Mao Ying's team serving as the principal investigator, and nearly 20 tertiary hospitals across the country jointly participating in the trials.

At the end of September, BrainCo Technologies disclosed its latest exploration, which demonstrated the capabilities of this brain-computer interface product in a more specific way. For example, in a real life scenario, a subject used the simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) capability of AI smart glasses to complete visual perception and dynamic modeling, identify the area he focused on, and list controllable devices. Then he used the brain-computer interface to confirm his intention, and could independently adjust the hospital bed, turn on and off lights and other household devices.

In the whole chain, the brain-computer interface is the underlying connection, and XessOS (the brain-computer operating system independently developed by BrainCo Technologies) is responsible for translating intentions into device instructions.

Tao Hu calls this direction "BCI+AI". In his view, brain-computer interface "is not only a medical device, but also an interface for the integration of human intelligence and artificial intelligence", where humans are responsible for putting forward goals and making judgments, while AI and machines undertake the execution. On the one hand, high-quality neural data from brain-computer interface requires large AI models for accurate decoding; on the other hand, embodied intelligence and large models are exactly lacking the entry of "intention".

But Tao Hu is very clear that the current amount of data is far from enough. "With the reserve of dozens of clinical data, it is impossible to realize the seamless migration of algorithms between different patients. It is possible that the model I adjusted for one patient will not work when applied to the next person." His judgment is that at least hundreds or even thousands of cases are needed to form a generalizable, reproducible and transplantable algorithm.

In Tao Hu's vision, the development of brain-computer interface will go through two stages. The first stage is the present, where the invasive "Three-Full" system is used to serve severe patients with high paraplegia, aphasia, blindness and other conditions, so that they can "return from being patients to normal people", and can communicate independently, control equipment and live on their own.

The second stage will come in the next 3 to 5 years. The invasive brain-computer interface will be used as the gold standard to calibrate non-invasive solutions with weak and unstable signals, so that brain-computer interface can move from hospital beds to the daily life of ordinary people, making "normal people become superhuman". "Non-invasiveness is the future of the industry, but the non-invasive signal is too poor, so we must use high-quality invasive data for calibration." Tao Hu said.