▼ Summary
– Max Hodak’s startup, Science Corporation, has raised $230 million in a Series C, achieving a $1.5 billion post-money valuation.
– Its primary product, the PRIMA implant, is a tiny chip designed to restore functional vision to people with advanced macular degeneration.
– The company acquired and refined the PRIMA technology, and its trials with 47 patients showed 80% experienced meaningful visual improvement, including restored reading ability.
– Science Corp. aims to be the first brain-computer interface company to market, targeting a European launch in mid-2026 after CE mark approval, with Germany as a likely first market.
– The funding will support PRIMA’s commercialization and broader research, including a biohybrid neural interface program and an organ preservation platform called Vessel.
While much of the venture capital community focuses on artificial intelligence, a different kind of frontier technology is attracting significant investment. Science Corporation, a brain-computer interface (BCI) startup founded by former Neuralink president Max Hodak, has secured $230 million in a Series C funding round. This substantial investment, which values the company at $1.5 billion, is aimed at bringing its first commercial product to patients. The funding round, supported by investors like Lightspeed Venture Partners and Khosla Ventures, brings the company’s total capital raised to $490 million.
The company’s immediate focus is a device called PRIMA, a sub-retinal implant smaller than a grain of rice. It works in tandem with special camera-equipped glasses, designed to restore functional vision for individuals with advanced dry age-related macular degeneration. Science Corp acquired the technology’s assets from the French company Pixium Vision, then refined the system and completed clinical trials. The results from studies involving 47 patients in the U.S. and Europe showed that 80% experienced meaningful improvement, regaining the ability to read letters and words. Founder Max Hodak has emphasized that this represents a landmark achievement, being the first definitive demonstration of restored reading fluency in blind patients.
Regulatory pathways are now taking shape. The company has submitted an application for a CE Mark in the European Union, with an anticipated approval and product launch in mid-2026. This timeline could position Science Corp as the first BCI company to successfully commercialize a product. Germany is likely its initial market due to established pathways for early access to novel medical tech. Discussions with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are described as ongoing. Beyond its flagship product, the startup is expanding its PRIMA trial program to include other retinal conditions like Stargardt disease and retinitis pigmentosa.
The new capital will fuel the commercialization push for PRIMA and support the company’s broader, ambitious research portfolio. This includes a biohybrid neural interface program, which involves growing engineered neurons from stem cells onto a device that sits on the brain’s surface to form biological connections. Another initiative, named Vessel, is an organ preservation platform. It seeks to develop miniaturized perfusion technology, potentially allowing organs to be transported on commercial flights or maintained at a patient’s home instead of in intensive care units. With 150 employees, Science Corp is leveraging its recent funding to advance multiple programs at the intersection of biology and engineering.
(Source: TechCrunch)
