Elon Musk’s Neuralink and OpenAI-backed Merge Labs advance brain-computer interface (BCI) technology in the U.S. Meanwhile, Chinese entrepreneur Phoenix Peng is building competing efforts through two startups: NeuroXess, which develops implantable BCI systems, and a second company. Gestaladeveloping non-invasive ultrasound-based BCIs.
Gestala raised $21.6 million (CN¥150 million) just two months after launching, at a valuation of $100 million to $200 million, founder and CEO Phoenix Peng told TechCrunch.
The round, led by Guosheng Capital and Dalton Venture with participation from Tsing Song Capital, Gobi Ventures, Fourier Intelligence, Liepin and Seas Capital, was heavily oversubscribed, with investor commitments exceeding $58 million, Peng added.
This is the largest early-stage funding in China’s BCI industry. Peng will use the money for research and development, expanding the team from 15 to about 35 employees by the end of the year and building a manufacturing facility in China. The barely three-month-old startup aims to complete the first-generation prototype by the end of the year.
The global BCI industry is currently experiencing an increase in investment in ultrasound technology. Gestala is the first BCI ultrasound company in China, although not the first worldwide. Several ultrasound BCI startups have emerged in the US in recent years, including Merge Labs, which is one of the largest.
Peng believes that ultrasound could represent the next generation of brain-computer interface technology, offering the potential for broader access to the entire brain and new ways to interact with neural activity.
The founder says that non-invasive ultrasound could address one of the biggest barriers to BCI adoption: the risks associated with brain surgery. Compared to implanted electrode systems, the technology can monitor a larger portion of the brain, including deep neural circuits. Using phased-array ultrasound, the system can also precisely stimulate or suppress neural activity without the need for surgery, he explained.
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Despite rising geopolitical tensions, Peng still hopes the US and China can cooperate in deep technology research.
“Both countries have different strengths,” Peng said. “China offers large-scale clinical research capacity and efficient supply chains, while the US has world-class scientific talent.” Joint efforts could also focus on building large clinical data sets to support global neuroscience research, he said.
The company is exploring various uses for its technology. Medically, chronic pain management is the startup’s main program. Chronic pain affects large populations in both the U.S. and China, and existing academic studies show that ultrasound stimulation can significantly reduce pain levels, Peng said.
The startup is also studying applications in mental health conditions, including depression, PTSD, autism and OCD, as well as stroke rehabilitation. Other long-term targets include Alzheimer’s disease, essential tremor and Parkinson’s disease. In total, the company is investigating six to eight potential indications, although most remain in the early stages of research and not in clinical trials.
Gestala says its advantage over global rivals is speed and scale. By leveraging China’s integrated manufacturing ecosystem, the startup believes it can move from development to production faster than many international competitors.
The company is also partnering with major Chinese hospitals to accelerate clinical trials at significantly lower costs — about 20 percent to 33 percent of comparable studies in the U.S. or Europe. At the same time, Gestala is building what it calls an “Ultrasound Brain Bank,” a large clinical dataset designed to train artificial intelligence models to decode brain signals and support future neurological diagnostics.
