Shanghai StairMed Technology said it closed a strategic financing round of RMB 500 million (about $72.8 million) led by Alibaba. The company named existing investors Tencent, Fountainbridge Capital, OrbiMed, Oriza Seed, Qiming Venture Partners, Lilly Asia Ventures and Source Code Capital as participants.
StairMed called the deal a “rare joint investment” from Alibaba and Tencent in the BCI space. The round follows a February 2025 raise of $48 million and brings StairMed’s funding to more than RMB 1.1 billion (about $160 million) over the past year, the company said.
Technology and clinical plans
StairMed develops ultra-flexible microelectrodes and robotic implantation systems for invasive BCIs. The company says its electrodes are about one-fifth the size of Neuralink’s and use a softer material intended to reduce tissue damage. The implantation procedure still requires drilling of the skull.
Using that hardware, StairMed has built a closed-loop, ultra-low-damage deep brain stimulation (DBS) system and identifies target applications including speech reconstruction, artificial hearing, facial palsy repair and spinal cord injury repair. Earlier this year the company used a proprietary surgical robot to implant a 256-channel wireless high-throughput invasive BCI (WRS02) and reported validation of brain-controlled interaction functions.
StairMed said it is the only invasive BCI in China granted access to the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) Green Channel for Innovative Medical Devices. The company plans to accelerate platform and clinical development and aims to start large-scale clinical development in mid-2026. StairMed told investors it hopes to enroll and implant 40 patients within that year, with formal clinical trials expected in 2027.
Founder Li Xue said, “BMI is not only an emerging medical technology, but also a point of convergence between life sciences and information technology. The deep expertise of these industry leaders ... aligns closely with StairMed’s strengths in BMI hardware and clinical translation.”
The announcement comes as China’s BCI sector has seen fresh deals and regulatory moves: ultrasound-based Gestala raised $21.7 million last month, and Neuracle reported recent NMPA approval for a BCI device.
Photo credit: wtwh-marketing.s3.amazonaws.com
Tags: brain–computer interface, neural implants, deep brain stimulation, clinical trials, Alibaba
Topics: Neurotech industry & startups, Brain–computer interfaces, Neuroprosthetics & neural implants