BlueRun Ventures Leads Angel Round of Several Tens of Millions of Yuan for Brain-Computer Intelligence Company Weiling Medical | BlueRun Ventures
Mastery of full-chain, independently developed, internationally leading minimally invasive implantable brain-computer interface technology
Recently, Shenzhen-based brain-computer interface (BCI) leader Weiling Medical completed a tens of millions of RMB angel round, co-led by BlueRun Ventures and CDH Investments, with follow-on participation from Naton Technology Group and Future Light Cone, an initiative launched by Guokr.
Rong Jing, Managing Director at BlueRun Ventures, commented: "Brain-computer interface is a complex, multi-disciplinary engineering challenge that demands capabilities spanning from scientific innovation to engineering execution. The Weiling Medical team is currently the world's leading team with full-chain proprietary technology in minimally invasive implantable BCIs — a research group that represents the international cutting edge of BCI technology. We are thrilled to support such a team with genuine source-level innovation capabilities as a lead investor, and we will continue to monitor advances in BCI and neurobiology applications in healthcare."
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Disruptive BCI Technology Enters the Clinic
Founded in April 2019, Weiling Medical focuses on developing medical-grade fully implantable wireless BCI systems and is an internationally leading enterprise with full-chain proprietary technology in implantable BCIs. The company has established its headquarters and R&D center in Shenzhen, with clinical research and data centers in Beijing and Suzhou respectively, and a North American division in Maryland, United States.
Implantable BCI enables direct information exchange between the brain and computers through neural interface technology. Leveraging the brain's neural plasticity and functional distribution principles, it allows the brain to learn to control electronic devices beyond the body with ease.
To date, Weiling Medical has developed mature technologies across foundational device layers — including high-density ultra-compliant neural sensor arrays and integrated acquisition-stimulation closed-loop neural electronic chips — as well as core BCI fusion modules such as thousand-channel miniaturized brain-computer information interaction devices, wireless brain information transceivers, high-throughput neural signal real-time parsing and transcoding systems, and brain-inspired intelligent decoding and control systems. At the system platform level, the team has fully established preclinical research paradigms and functional assessment systems for implantable BCIs based on non-human primates, successfully completed implantation surgeries on multiple macaques, and is currently conducting brain-computer intelligent fusion training experiments.
"The entire process is like learning to ride a bicycle or swim." In the view of Dr. Li Xiaojian, Weiling Medical's founder, the rapid development and application of artificial intelligence has significantly enhanced computers' ability to learn and understand brain information. Advances in these technologies in recent years have matured brain-computer intelligent fusion technology and substantially accelerated multiple successful clinical explorations of BCI applications.
Against this backdrop, Weiling Medical aims to orient its design around medical device requirements, drive specific BCI system designs through clinical needs, prioritize steadily delivering system-level products to clinical endpoints within several years, and adhere to the principle of benefiting patients as quickly as possible — all to advance the clinical translation of BCI technology with emphasis on real-world application scenarios.
To this end, the company plans to focus on the clinical solution design, engineering implementation, and clinical practice of fully implantable motor BCI systems, with the goal of prioritizing service to patients with motor disabilities (such as stroke, spinal cord injury, and ALS) to achieve motor function replacement and rehabilitation.
Dr. Li Xiaojian outlined a "three-step" roadmap based on technology maturity and medical device regulatory timelines. Step one, enhancement: Within approximately three years, advance MEMS-based high-density ultra-compliant neural electrode arrays and supporting systems into clinical use, providing physicians with better tools to map more precise brain function "atlases" and improve surgical planning efficiency and accuracy. Step two, transformation: Within approximately five years, enable fully implantable BCI systems for use in motor-disabled patients, improving patients' motor control and self-care capabilities. Step three, disruption: Within eight to ten years, expand the implantable BCI-based therapeutic platform into mental health diagnosis and treatment, disrupting the current landscape of psychiatric and other major brain diseases — making mental illness a condition that can be precisely controlled or even cured.
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Building a World-Leading Team with Full-Chain Proprietary Implantable BCI Technology
Weiling Medical's confidence in the BCI field stems from its internationally leading team composition.
Currently, the Weiling Medical team brings over two decades of international research experience across foundational BCI research, engineering practice, and clinical medicine, with deep understanding of BCI principles and clinical applications.
This seasoned and multidisciplinary research and professional experience has enabled the company to address a series of scientific, technical, engineering, and management questions in implantable BCI R&D and commercialization — including the operating principles of brain-computer fusion, design principles and engineering implementation of BCIs, and the engineering development, clinical research, and commercialization pathways for medical-device-grade BCI systems — knowledge that peer startups typically lack.
Team members include senior researchers from leading American BCI research institutions including Northwestern University, Brown University, Duke University, the University of Pittsburgh, the National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Take Dr. Li Xiaojian as an example. After returning to China in autumn 2018, he established the Brain-Computer Intelligent Fusion Technology Laboratory at the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Leveraging the institute's comprehensive industrial R&D platform, he became the first in China to establish a complete proprietary technology chain for implantable BCI systems, publishing multiple BCI papers in top international journals with experimental data collected entirely using self-developed equipment.
Weiling Medical's research team maintains an active spirit of exploration in frontier BCI technologies, building technical reserves for more advanced future products. Current achievements include research on nano-enhancement technology for neural signal sensing, which improves polymer sensors' neural signal detection performance while ensuring more robust structures and longer service life. In September 2022, the team jointly disclosed a novel optical nano-neural remote control technology (published September 5, 2022 in a Nature sub-journal), achieving micro-device miniaturization of BCI equipment with flexible, minimally invasive implantation, controllable service life, and wireless information exchange. This frontier BCI technology in neural rehabilitation was not only pioneered by Chinese scholars and continues to be led by them, but is also gradually moving from the laboratory to the clinic.
"The road is long and obstructed, yet arrival comes with walking; walk without ceasing, and the future holds promise. Weiling Medical hopes to work alongside excellent peers across the BCI industry chain, accelerating technology development and product deployment, striving together to serve disabled patients sooner, improve patients' self-care capabilities, and preserve human dignity." said Dr. Li Xiaojian.
Originating in Silicon Valley, BlueRun Ventures was established in 2005 as a venture capital firm focused on early-stage startups.
Currently, BlueRun Ventures manages multiple USD and RMB dual-currency funds in China, with assets under management exceeding RMB 15 billion, making it one of the largest early-stage funds domestically. The firm invests primarily at Pre-A and Series A stages, covering hard tech and innovative interaction, enterprise technology, new consumer, and healthcare sectors. It has cumulatively invested in over 150 startups, including Li Auto, Waterdrop, QingCloud, Guazi Used Car, Qudian, Songguo Mobility, Ganji.com, Energy Monster, Yuntou Semiconductor, Machenike, Yunshing Intelligent, Anxin Network Shield, and BioMap.
BlueRun Ventures has been ranked first in Zero2IPO's "China Top 30 Early-Stage Investment Institutions" and ChinaVenture's "China Best Early-Stage Venture Capital Institutions TOP30," and was named among Preqin's Top 10 globally consistent high-return VC fund managers.
Additionally, BlueRun Ventures has received consecutive honors from Forbes China, 36Kr, Cyzone, Caixin Media, CBNweekly, Jiemian, and other media institutions, including "China Early-Stage Firm of the Year," "China Top Venture Capital Firm," "Most Entrepreneur-Friendly Early-Stage Firm of the Year," and "Most Influential Early-Stage Firm of the Year."