Self-developed SNN neuromorphic chips, positioned as the "upstream brain" for medical devices, Menergy Technology has secured tens of millions of yuan in financing | 36Kr Exclusive

By Hu Xiangyun

Edited by Hai Ruojing

36Kr has exclusively learned that recently, MinoTec, a cutting-edge enterprise focused on physiological brain-inspired chips, has completed equity financing of tens of millions of yuan. This round of financing is jointly invested by Xianju Lanwan Fund and Xi Venture Capital. All the raised funds will be fully put into the mass production and iteration of medical-grade standardized modules, the implementation of full-link closed-loop physiological regulation system engineering, and the large-scale ecological integration process of medical device manufacturers across the country.

Relevant person in charge of MinoTec observed that the global medical hardware industry is currently ushering in a "paradigm shift of underlying technology". "The traditional general-purpose computing power solution of MCU+ANN (Micro Controller Unit + Artificial Neural Network) was born for discrete data scenarios of images and texts, and it is difficult to adapt to the continuous, weak and high-noise physiological time-series signals of the human body. However, cutting-edge tracks such as long-term wearable devices, closed-loop neural intervention, and full-cycle home management of chronic diseases have long faced three underlying bottlenecks: power consumption, latency and safety. The market demands an integrated underlying platform that is natively adapted to human physiological characteristics and complies with the full-process compliance requirements of medical devices."

Based on this, MinoTec has chosen to focus on the R&D of underlying computing power infrastructure in the upstream of medical devices, and has built a full closed-loop native software and hardware platform of "physiological perception - event computing - safe regulation". The company independently develops the full set of underlying technologies from analog signal acquisition, pulse event coding, brain-inspired sparse computing to hardware-level safety intervention, and does not engage in the manufacturing of complete terminal devices, so as to output standardized underlying capability packages that can be quickly integrated and adapted to clinical specifications for various medical device manufacturers. In 2025, this model has generated scaled revenue.

The relevant person in charge of MinoTec introduced that at present, the mainstream traditional computing power in the industry mainly adopts the mode of "fixed window, continuous full-sampling computing". No matter whether there is abnormality in the human body signal or not, the chip performs uninterrupted full operation, which will cause invalid computing power loss, and bring problems such as reduced battery life, equipment heating, and delayed intervention response.

MinoTec has independently developed a digital-analog hybrid Spiking Neural Network (SNN) brain-inspired core, which replicates the asynchronous working logic of human brain nerves and is defined as "the next-generation native computing architecture oriented to time-series physiological signals".

The platform has a built-in exclusive physiological pulse coding mechanism, which wakes up the computing unit only when physiological waveforms such as EEG (electroencephalogram), ECG (electrocardiogram) and EMG (electromyogram) have characteristic mutations and generate valid events. In the state of no abnormal physical signs, the chip automatically enters an ultra-low power deep sleep state, realizing 7×24-hour uninterrupted online monitoring of the device, and solving the power consumption pain point of long-term wearable devices from the root of the hardware architecture.

This design is in line with the current development trend of the medical device industry. In the past, the industry focused on surgical and imaging devices for short-term treatment of diagnosed diseases. However, current market demands are also expanding to scenarios that require long-term joint management inside and outside hospitals, such as chronic diseases, mental illnesses, and geriatric diseases. Such diseases require continuous monitoring at home and in hospitals, making wearable medical devices an increasingly rigid demand.

"Relying on the native event-driven design, our products have certain technical advantages in the two dimensions of real-time end-side event recognition and weak signal response latency, which helps to meet the demands of scenarios such as long-term home chronic disease monitoring, non-invasive brain-computer interaction, and rehabilitation closed-loop regulation," the person in charge said.

According to the introduction, the full set of brain-inspired computing cores of MinoTec is equipped with an exclusive physiological algorithm library and hardware security protection logic, which is not a secondary transformation of general open-source algorithms, and has a complete underlying intellectual property barrier.

At present, the entire platform is composed of three layers of self-developed hardware systems, forming a complete physiological signal processing closed-loop, with coordinated optimization of software and hardware at all levels and no adaptation loss of third-party general devices: The first is the multi-modal physiological perception array, which adapts to the complex wearing environment of dry/semi-dry electrodes, can capture continuous waveforms of weak body surface bioelectric and optical physical signs, complete high-precision analog-to-digital standardized conversion, and is compatible with synchronous acquisition of multiple types of human physiological signals. The second is the event-driven brain-inspired computing core, which is also the core technical carrier of the platform, capable of realizing low-power physiological event filtering, hierarchical assessment of human body status, and outputting standardized event instructions that can be used for intervention.

In addition, the last layer is the medical-grade programmable regulation unit, which is built with multi-layer hardware firewalls. All intervention outputs are verified by hardware-level rule checks to avoid the risk of algorithm black boxes. At present, it gives priority to the implementation of the electrophysiological intervention mode with the highest clinical recognition, and lays out the multi-modal non-invasive regulation technology pipeline in the long term.

"The three layers of hardware are equipped with a unified development toolchain, standardized test data set and full-process safety control rules. Manufacturers do not need multi-vendor joint debugging, and can directly embed them into their own medical terminals, greatly shortening the R&D and registration cycle of complete devices," the aforementioned person in charge said.

In terms of commercialization, targeting the "distinctly stratified R&D capabilities" of customers in the medical industry: for example, some leading enterprises have complete R&D teams, and only need to purchase chips for equipment upgrading and cost optimization; while a large number of start-up teams founded by clinical doctors and other professionals are better at discovering clinical demands, but lack capabilities in hardware R&D, medical device registration and supply chain control, so they have stronger demand for complete solutions.

In response to this, MinoTec has built a five-level step delivery system covering chips, modules, development kits, joint debugging and registration support, covering all types of participants in the industry: L1 is pure underlying hardware supply, targeting leading medical enterprises with complete independent R&D capabilities; L2 is standardized hardware module delivery, providing pre-jointed and mature signal links; L3 is modules + complete development SDK and clinical reference design, adapted to medium-sized equipment manufacturers; L4 includes joint software and hardware engineering debugging, providing customized algorithm adaptation services; L5 provides full sets of technical documents for medical device registration and small-batch mass production support, empowering clinical-originated start-up teams.

At present, MinoTec's customers cover multiple types of manufacturers in home consumer medical care, professional rehabilitation, and neuro-medical equipment. The delivery solutions at different levels can flexibly match the implementation pace of customers, forming a stratified commercial matrix.

"We adopt a dual-track commercialization strategy of 'consumer medical care for rapid expansion, and serious medical care for moat building'. Because the standardized modules in the consumer health track have a short landing cycle, can be quickly scaled up to generate stable cash flow and verify the universality of the underlying platform. The serious neuro-medical track has deep technical barriers and higher product added value. Relying on joint engineering prototypes with tertiary A medical institutions to carry out clinical verification, multiple chronic disease intervention pipelines have entered the pre-ethics assessment stage, with broad long-term growth space," said the relevant person in charge of MinoTec.

At this stage, MinoTec has launched multiple mature pipelines including sleep autonomic nerve regulation, sports rehabilitation, and home intervention for chronic pain, and has jointly built a physiological closed-loop verification system with many tertiary A medical institutions, to continuously iterate underlying algorithms and hardware solutions adapted to real clinical scenarios. The long-term technical blueprint will extend to cutting-edge tracks such as brain science research equipment and long-term non-invasive intervention for multiple types of physical and mental chronic diseases, continuously expanding the industrial boundary of physiological event computing technology.