BCIFlex
Invasive High-Throughput Ultra-Thin Flexible Brain-Computer Interface System Developer
Recently, Beijing Bciflex Medical Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as "BCIFlex"), a leading enterprise in China's invasive brain-computer interface field, announced the completion of a 300 million RMB A+ round of financing. This round was led by CAS Star, with continued investment from existing shareholders including Legend Capital, Beijing Medical and Health Industry Investment Fund, IDG Capital, Shunwei Capital, Lenovo Ventures, Yuanbio Venture Capital, Sequoia China, Meituan Longzhu, BV Baidu Ventures, Apricot Capital, and Jiayin Capital.
Notably, this marks the second round of financing completed by BCIFlex within half a year. In August last year, the company secured over 300 million yuan in its Series A round. Half a year later, existing shareholders collectively increased their investments, and capital doubled down again, fully demonstrating the market's dual recognition of BCIFlex’s full-stack capabilities and development potential in the invasive brain-computer interface sector. This round of financing will mainly be used to advance large-scale clinical trials, iterate on high-throughput flexible brain-computer interface products, and accelerate the clinical application of invasive brain-computer interface technology.
丨The "Scientist + Entrepreneur" Golden Combination
BCIFlex was co-founded by Dr. Fang Ying and Dr. Song Qi, forming a founder team with deep complementary strengths in "research + industry."
Dr. Fang Ying, as the founder and chief scientist, is an alumnus of the University of Science and Technology of China (Class 9719), and holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University. She currently serves as a researcher and doctoral supervisor at the Beijing Institute of Brain Science and Brain-like Intelligence, and has been selected as a "Young Top Talent" in the "Ten Thousand Talents Program" by the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee. She also leads the Ministry of Science and Technology's brain project "New Technology Platform for Neural Recording and Modulation." With deep expertise in electrodes, materials, and hardware, her globally pioneering injectable flexible electrode technology has established the core technological foundation for BCIFlex.
Recently, the team led by her successfully developed "Stretchable High-Throughput Flexible Electrodes," which achieve biomechanical compliance while maintaining high-throughput signal acquisition capabilities, solving the industry-wide problem of traditional linear flexible electrodes being prone to displacement and dislodgement. The related findings were published on February 5 in the international journal *Nature Electronics* and received attention from authoritative media such as *People's Daily* and *Science and Technology Daily*.
Dr. Song Qi, as the founder and CEO, graduated from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Iowa and has served as the founder and CEO of a leading AI medical company in China. He led the development of multiple AI medical imaging and data projects, successfully obtaining the first Class III NMPA certificate for AI medical devices in China as well as the first CE certification. He is highly experienced in software algorithms, corporate management, clinical registration, and commercialization.
丨From Flexible Electrodes to Implantable Robots: Closing the Loop on Invasive Brain-Computer Interface Industry
The global brain-computer interface industry has now entered a critical window period for technological differentiation and clinical transformation. The three major approaches—invasive, semi-invasive, and non-invasive—are competing with differentiated strategies. Among them, the invasive approach, with its high precision, high real-time capability, and high throughput in signal acquisition, has become the core breakthrough in serious medical applications and human-computer interaction.
The essential difference between invasive and semi-invasive methods lies in the physical positional relationship between the electrodes and brain tissue. Semi-invasive electrodes are placed above or below the dura mater, where signals significantly attenuate with distance, limiting spatiotemporal resolution and making it difficult to extract fine neural coding. In contrast, the invasive approach involves directly implanting flexible electrodes into brain tissue, enabling precise capture of single-neuron action potentials, achieving high-precision real-time decoding of fine motor movements, and offering an order-of-magnitude advantage in information transmission rates.
In the global competition for invasive brain-computer interface technology, Neuralink leads internationally, while in China, BCIFlex is a representative.
BCIFlex, established in 2022, has become a leading enterprise in China for invasive brain-computer interface technology due to its core technological breakthroughs and full-chain independent innovation. It primarily focuses on developing a new generation of invasive flexible brain-computer interface platforms to empower precise diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders. The company has gathered a global team of top scientists from cutting-edge fields such as advanced materials, micro-nano manufacturing, surgical robotics, brain science, and artificial intelligence.
Since its establishment, BCIFlex has completed the systematic layout of the upstream and midstream invasive brain-computer interface industry chain, building a complete industrial closed loop from core technology research and development to large-scale mass production.
Built on four core technological pillars—flexible electrodes, neural chips, decoding algorithms, and electrode implantation robots—the company has independently constructed nearly 2,000 square meters of clinical-grade micro-nano processing workshops and GMP-standard assembly workshops. This enables full-chain independent control of clinical-grade products and establishes scalable production capabilities.
The core product, "Invasive High-Throughput Flexible Electrode," features an ultra-thin, stretchable design with a thickness at the micron level. It ensures biocompatibility while significantly reducing implantation damage and immune-inflammatory responses. It supports the acquisition of more than one active neuron per channel on average, effectively overcoming the long-term signal instability bottleneck of traditional electrodes.
This electrode has been granted patents in both China and the U.S. The world's first human implantation experiment was completed in 2025, verifying the feasibility of signal acquisition and brain stimulation.
BCIFlex's Self-Developed Invasive Ultra-Thin Flexible Electrode
On this basis, the company has independently developed a fully implantable high-throughput wireless signal acquisition system, which supports precise acquisition of up to 1024-channel neuronal action potentials. It is equipped with an implantable rechargeable battery that has been successfully charged via an external wireless inductive charger (the battery has passed the IEC62133 international safety standard certification).
BCIFlex Wireless Implantable Signal Acquisition System
In terms of algorithms, BCIFlex's self-developed deep neural network algorithm enables high-throughput EEG signal online real-time decoding. Meanwhile, by adopting an adaptive network, the model can be automatically updated online, further enhancing decoding accuracy and algorithm versatility.
At the data end, BCIFlex has built a high-precision EEG data platform, owning more than 60TB of animal neuron EEG data and dozens of TB of human deep brain region neuron EEG data. Relying on the existing massive EEG data, BCIFlex pre-trains the large neuron EEG model, accelerating model training speed, enhancing the versatility of decoding models and the accuracy of EEG decoding, supporting more clinical scenarios.
At the same time, its domestically produced neural signal acquisition chip is only coin-sized, with power consumption dropping by 75% compared to traditional chips; the deep neural network decoding algorithm, trained on massive amounts of neuronal brainwave data, enables high-precision real-time decoding.
In addition, the company has independently developed a high-precision intelligent electrode implantation robot that achieves micron-level positioning, automatic obstacle avoidance, and path planning, addressing the "last mile" for large-scale clinical applications of high-throughput invasive brain-computer interfaces.
In terms of clinical trials, in 2025, BCIFlex completed the clinical implantation of an invasive brain-computer interface product with over a hundred channels, preliminarily verifying the product's safety and effectiveness. Song Qi revealed that in 2026, plans are in place to initiate large-scale registered clinical trials for the over-a-hundred-channel invasive brain-computer interface product.
丨Seven Years, Seven Rounds: Sequoia China Continues to Invest
Since its establishment in 2022, BCIFlex has completed at least seven rounds of financing, continuously receiving strong support from top-tier capital. Sequoia China has continuously invested from the seed round, and the cumulative financing of the single A round and A+ round alone has exceeded 600 million yuan.
As of now, the investor lineup includes more than ten top-tier market-oriented institutions and industry capital such as Legend Capital, IDG Capital, Vivo Capital, Baidu Ventures, Meituan Longzhu, Lenovo Capital, Shunwei Capital, CAS Star, Apricot Capital, Sequoia China, Shunbo Fund, China Life Equity, Danlu Capital, Jiayin Assets, and CAS Star.
丨In Conclusion
Currently, invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) companies represented by Neuralink are accelerating capacity expansion and surgical automation globally. In June 2025, after completing its $650 million Series E financing round, Neuralink's valuation exceeded $9 billion. At the same time, China is also experiencing a dual breakthrough in policy support and payment solutions. The "15th Five-Year Plan" has listed brain-computer interfaces as one of the six key future industries, with multiple regions establishing special funds worth billions of yuan. The National Healthcare Security Administration has officially approved independent charging for BCI services, paving the way for broader clinical applications. These initiatives demonstrate a strong commitment from all parties to advance the BCI industry. Companies with platform capabilities in invasive BCIs will have an excellent opportunity to accelerate real-world applications. Technologically speaking, signal acquisition quality, long-term stability, and implant safety remain the core focus of the industry. Therefore, this round of financing not only represents top-tier capital’s recognition of BCIFlex’s core technology and clinical progress but also marks a critical window period for BCIs transitioning from laboratories to serious medical applications. After all, companies with full-stack platform capabilities, independent supply chains, and real human data may become the central targets for resource concentration.