Xiangyu Medical Raises Up to $1.9 Billion to Advance Domestic Brain-Computer Interface Development

Author | Yue Qing

Edited by Yu Zhongjin

The Commercialization Race for Non-Invasive Brain-Computer Interfaces Has Fully Begun.

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Heavy Investment in Brain-Computer Interface Rehabilitation

Sunnyou MedicalProposed Fundraising Exceeds RMB 1 Billion

Recently, Sunnyou Medical announced that it plans to issue no more than 48 million A-shares to no more than 35 specific investors.The total amount of funds raised shall not exceed RMB 1.366 billion., will be primarily used for the R&D project of innovative rehabilitation medical products, includingBrain-Computer Interface and RehabilitationRobotand other popular sectors.

In recent years, the business landscape for rehabilitation medical devices in China has been undergoing changes.

From a market perspective, driven by chronic disease management resulting from an aging population structure, domestic demand for rehabilitation treatment is currently in a period of explosive growth. According to KPMG’s forecast,By 2025, the market size of China's rehabilitation medical industry will exceed RMB 200 billion.

However, traditional rehabilitation models have reached a bottleneck, with limited efficacy particularly for critically ill and chronic-phase patients, thereby hindering the industry’s overall marketization process to some extent. Identifying new growth drivers has become a consensus within the industry.

At the current stage, the integration of brain-computer interface technology with rehabilitation therapy has become a prominent field, and related concepts have become powerful tools for attracting capital in the capital market.Sealand SecuritiesThe institute once conducted an assessment of the market potential for brain-computer interface rehabilitation devices.The market size in China is approximately RMB 4 billion to RMB 37.5 billion.。

For Sunnyou, its foray into brain-computer interfaces (BCI) is clearly not an attempt to ride the hype wave. After all, it is one of the first companies in China to recognize the potential of this sector and has invested heavily in research and development. However, as the number of participants grows—especially with cross-industry tech giants entering the field—Sunnyou must continue to increase its investment to transform its first-mover advantage into a competitive barrier.

In the analysis report, Sunnyou Medical disclosed the intended use of the funds to be raised, coveringKey components, including EEG acquisition electrodes, proprietary custom chips, multimodal decoding algorithms, and brain-controlled rehabilitation devices, will be leveraged through the self-established Sun-BCI Lab neuroscience laboratory to develop products tailored for diverse scenarios.。

Although the concept of “brain-computer interface + rehabilitation” has gained significant traction in recent years, specific product forms and strategies remain unclear, and related technological barriers have not been fully overcome. As capital enthusiasm eventually subsides, the ultimate competition will hinge on clinical outcomes and the pace of commercial translation.

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Why Rehabilitation Has Become the Benchmark for Brain-Computer Interface Commercialization

Sunnyou’s report mentions that, at the product level, it aims to achieve an upgrade and iteration from traditional passive rehabilitation to active rehabilitation, which is also one of the underlying logics behind the high compatibility between brain-computer interfaces and rehabilitation therapy.

First, neurological rehabilitation is a key business segment of rehabilitation departments in China. However, due to objective factors such as the long treatment cycle and slow onset of efficacy, therapeutic outcomes often fail to meet patients’ expectations.

According to a rehabilitation specialist at a leading hospital in China, under traditional treatment models, most rehabilitation patients remain in a passive state, with low engagement of the motor cortex and limited efficiency in neural plasticity. Moreover, patients with severe conditions often lack even the basic prerequisites for initiating rehabilitation training.

He stated:“From a theoretical perspective, brain-computer interface technology can achieve the transition from‘Brain to Limb’direct intervention, which means the ceiling of rehabilitation therapy will be broken through.”

“Even from a current perspective, domestic brain-computer interface (BCI) products have at least achieved a therapeutic leap from passive to active intervention. To illustrate with a simple example, the patient’s subjective initiative is a critical variable influencing rehabilitation outcomes,”Brain-computer interface (BCI) products significantly surpass traditional methods in terms of engagement, transforming monotonous repetitive training into goal-oriented, reward-based level-clearing tasks. This encourages patients to voluntarily extend their training duration and eliminates resistance to rehabilitation programs.”

Furthermore, with the establishment of national-level billing items for brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), the application of BCIs in rehabilitation departments has gained formal recognition, leading to a simultaneous expansion in patient coverage and treatment revenue for these departments.

Compared to departments such as neurosurgery, which are also potential application scenarios for brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), the rehabilitation department has relatively less stringent requirements for the precision of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. This is why non-invasive solutions can be rapidly scaled and implemented. Taking Sunnyou Medical as an example,It has partnered with more than 600 leading hospitals in China.。

Currently, non-invasive brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) combined with rehabilitation represent the fastest-growing sector in BCI commercialization. In addition to Sunnyou Medical, BrainCo, which is recently accelerating its IPO process, is also a significant player in this field.The latter completed a RMB 2 billion financing round earlier this year, making it the second-largest globally after Elon Musk’s Neuralink.。

As competition in the sector intensifies, mere conceptual positioning is no longer sufficient to sustain long-term corporate development. The industry is likely to undergo accelerated consolidation, with in-hospital distribution channels and proprietary core R&D capabilities becoming critical barriers to survival.