ZhenTai Intelligence Secures Multi-Million RMB Angel Funding from Lenovo Capital to Advance BCI-Powered Medical Rehabilitation

36Kr has learned that the brain-computer interface medical industrialization company“ZhenTec” Officially Announces Completion of Multi-Million Yuan Angel Round Financing, Exclusively Invested by Lenovo Capital. The funds from this round will be used to accelerate the R&D of brain-controlled intelligent rehabilitation robot systems and team development, promoting the clinical application of related products.

“ZhenTec” was registered and established in Xi’an in 2018, specializing in the applied research and clinical application of brain-controlled medical rehabilitation systems, and has currently laid out its strategic presence.Assistive interaction and rehabilitation therapy devices, including those for assisted walking and rehabilitation training, as well as related detection applications targeting human mental states and neurological disorders.

In its industrialization efforts, ZhenTec currently focuses primarily on patients with neurological impairments such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), stroke, and spinal cord injury. According to the "China Stroke Prevention and Treatment Report (2018)," the incidence of stroke in China is increasing at an annual rate of nearly 9%, with 1.5 to 2 million new cases each year; by 2030, the number of stroke patients in China is projected to reach 31.77 million. In addition, approximately 5 million elderly individuals and people with disabilities require rehabilitative training annually. These figures underscore the vast market potential for rehabilitation medicine.

To this end, ZhenTec independently developed a novel vision-based brain-controlled motor rehabilitation approach—applying steady-state motion visual evoked potential (SSMVEP) technology to design motion stimulation paradigms, integrated with VR exercise scenarios, thereby forming an active-passive collaborative rehabilitation training system.In principle, the patient first watches motion scenes to stimulate their own motor sensory nerves, forming a "visually induced motor imagery." Subsequently, a brain-computer interface drives a rehabilitation robot to facilitate limb movement, combining central stimulation with peripheral feedback—termed "neural bridging"—to promote effective recovery of damaged nerves.

Technical Roadmap

According to Wang Haochong, CEO of ZhenTec, traditional rehabilitation methods (such as acupuncture, massage, and device-assisted therapy) can only provide unidirectional stimulation to neural pathways, fail to evoke strong motor intention in patients, and are prone to causing fatigue.; and relying on “Brain-Computer Interface"Technology,This approach facilitates neurological rehabilitation by continuously reinforcing stimulus feedback to the neural centers, and when combined with robotic-assisted stimulation, promotes neuroplasticity, thereby significantly enhancing rehabilitation outcomes.

Wang Haochong revealed that ZhenTec originated from the Institute of Medical-Engineering Interdisciplinary Research at Xi’an Jiaotong University, which has been engaged in research and development of brain-computer interface technologies for nearly 20 years, accumulating substantial expertise in technical research. Currently, ZhenTec holds multiple core technology patents. Leveraging its team’s independently developed EEG paradigms and algorithms, the company achieves an EEG signal recognition accuracy exceeding 90%.

After the technology met the requirements for industrialization, ZhenTec’s related applications were successively deployed in multiple Grade A tertiary hospitals, where clinical follow-up tests were conducted on over one hundred patients. The results indicated that, compared with traditional rehabilitation methods, the rehabilitative efficacy of ZhenTec was preliminarily verified to be significantly improved, as reflected in multiple metrics including the Loewenstein Occupational Therapy Cognitive Assessment (LOTCA), the Fugl-Meyer Assessment for Lower Extremities (FMA-LB), the Fugl-Meyer Assessment for Balance (FMA-B), and the Modified Barthel Index (MBI) for muscle tone. Nevertheless, he acknowledged that due to individual patient variability—primarily differences in etiology and affected brain regions—efforts are currently underway to further optimize the adaptive EEG signal extraction algorithms tailored to individual patients.

In terms of commercial implementation, the company’s flagship product is a brain-controlled lower-limb rehabilitation robot. By integrating brain-computer interface (BCI), virtual reality (VR), and robotic control technologies, it activates patients’ voluntary motor intentions to facilitate active-passive collaborative rehabilitation training, thereby addressing the limited therapeutic efficacy of traditional stroke rehabilitation equipment.

In the future, ZhenTec’s product portfolio will encompass R&D of foundational technologies for various brain-controlled VR/AR systems, BCI-AI education platforms, and operating systems for brain-controlled exoskeleton robots.To accelerate commercial monetization, Wang Haochong stated that in addition to independently developing devices, the company will also provide EEG hardware algorithms and system solutions to research institutions and other equipment manufacturers.

Regarding brain-computer interfaces, also known as "brain ports" or "brain-machine fusion perception," they are direct connection pathways established between the human or animal brain and external devices. Simply put, they enable the control of machines through thought. They canApplications in education, healthcare, and scenarios that better enable individuals to realize their potential have been described by industry insiders as “a new technological trend.”

Correspondingly, brain-computer interface (BCI) is also a high-threshold, complex systematic engineering project involving multiple disciplines such as neuroscience, cognitive science, neural engineering, materials science, and artificial intelligence. Currently, the industrial applications of BCI technology in China are mostly concentrated in the scientific research field, and have not yet formed large-scale market applications. At present, there are onlyYunRui Intelligent、Shendeng BiotechnologyOnly a few companies have established industrial layouts; internationally, companies integrating brain-computer interfaces with rehabilitation robots are also in the early exploratory stage, such asBrainGatesuch as Neuralink’s (Elon Musk’s startup) “brain-chip” and Facebook’s real-time thought-to-speech conversion.

Regarding the investment rationale, He Zhiqiang, Senior Vice President of Lenovo Group and President of Lenovo Capital, stated, “ZhenTec has accumulated profound expertise in brain-computer interface (BCI) technology and theoretical research, and is at the forefront of promoting clinical industrialization and application. Lenovo Capital recognizes its precise market positioning.”

Regarding the team, ZhenTec is composed of Ph.D. and Master’s graduates from Xi’an Jiaotong University, chief experts of the National 863 Program, and senior industry experts from the frontline medical device sector. The team has participated in multiple projects under the National 863 Program and major projects of the National Natural Science Foundation, and has long been engaged in research on brain-computer interfaces and rehabilitation robotics.