While most of the venture world is chasing AI deals, Max Hodak, co-founder and former president of Neuralink, is working on a startup that claims to be the first brain-computer interface company to bring a product to market.
Such claims did not go unnoticed. Hodak startup Science Corporation announced Wednesday morning that it has raised $230 million in a Series C funding round. The round brings Science’s post-money valuation to $1.5 billion, according to people close to the startup.
In the short term, Science Corporation is betting on PRIMA, a chip said to be smaller than a grain of rice. The chip can be implanted in the eye and work with camera glasses to restore functional vision to people suffering from progressive macular degeneration.
The startup hasn’t fully developed the technology itself. In 2024, it purchased PRIMA’s assets from the French company Pixium Vision, retrofitted them, and completed the trials initiated by Pixium.
But the clinical results that science has since produced are unique. In a trial of 47 patients in Europe and the United States, the company said 80% of patients showed significant improvement in their vision and were able to read letters, numbers and words.
“To my knowledge, this is the first time that recovery of reading fluency has been definitively demonstrated in a blind person,” Hodak told TechCrunch in an interview in December. The startup’s device was even featured on the cover of Time magazine.
It is not clear when PRIMA will be available to patients, but the regulatory path is taking shape. Science has submitted a CE mark application for the implant to the European Union and expects approval in mid-2026, after which it plans to launch the product on the continent. The company claims that this schedule will make it the first BCI company to bring the product to market.
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The company told TechCrunch that Germany is likely to be its first market as the country establishes a pathway to allow early access to new medical technologies. In the U.S., regulatory discussions with the FDA are “ongoing,” the company said.
Science Corp. is also expanding its PRIMA trial program to target Stargardt disease and retinitis pigmentosa, inherited retinal diseases that are the leading causes of vision loss in young adults.
This new capital will be used to fund PRIMA’s commercialization as well as support the startup’s broader research portfolio. This includes a biohybrid neural interface program that involves growing artificial neurons from stem cells on a waffle-shaped device that sits on the surface of the brain and forms biological connections with existing neural circuits.
There is also a new business line within Science called Vessel. This is an organ preservation platform aimed at developing miniaturized perfusion technologies that allow organs to be transported on commercial aircraft or maintained by patients at home rather than in an ICU suite.
Series C investors include new and previous backers including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, and Quiet Capital. IQT, a nonprofit investment firm focused on solutions available to government agencies such as the FBI and CIA, also invested.
This round brings Science Corp.’s total funding to $490 million. The startup currently employs 150 people.
Update: This article originally reflected a pre-money valuation of the company, rather than a post-money valuation.
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