Mindtrix Secures $700M Cumulative Funding: Can Brain-Computer Interfaces ‘Write’ Chinese Characters? (VCBeat, 2026-08-27)
Author: Embodied Emergence / VCBeat Health. Published Aug 27, 2026.
Key facts
- Mindtrix completed a Pre-A series financing round of RMB 350 million; combined with its previous angel round of RMB 150 million, cumulative fundraising reached RMB 500 million. (Headline says “70M.)
- Company: domestic (Chinese) BCI company specialising in visual reconstruction; fully focused on visual cortex implantation pathway; “deeply committed” to visual cortex-based visual reconstruction.
- Founded October 2024. Founder: Dr. Liu Bing, PhD in neurobiology, 10+ years of non-human primate BCI research, postdocs at leading overseas labs; interdisciplinary team (neuroscience, electronic engineering, bioengineering).
- Dual-hub model: industrialisation based in Suzhou, R&D centred in Beijing.
- Target patients: complete blindness caused by eyeball destruction or severe optic nerve damage (retinal prostheses cannot address).
- Human IIT (investigator-initiated trial) results: structured perceptual reproduction of the Chinese character “八” (co-ordinated multi-dimensional stimulation: stroke distribution, topological relationships, visual centre of gravity), after the Arabic numeral “7”. System advanced from simple light spots and single symbols to complex graphic and textual information.
- Company claim: established China’s only database for human visual cortex reconstruction, sole one achieving “shape + colour + grayscale + Chinese character writing + 100% target hit rate”. First domestic team to complete multidimensional IIT validations in humans (shapes, colours, Chinese characters).
- Roadmap: China’s first IIT in completely blind patients in 2026; formal registrational clinical trials 2028; first-generation product launch target 2030.
- Context: Science Corp has CE mark (retinal; strict indications); Neuralink Blindsight FDA Breakthrough, human trials expected 2026; competitor Nuoxinjia pursues both retina and cortex lines.
- Caveat (article): invasive medical BCI maturity should not be judged by funding scale/flashy demonstrations; first-generation products likely limited to contour recognition and obstacle avoidance.
(Extracted 2026-09-06 from https://www.vcbeathealth.com/article/61849)