BCI-Sonics Raises 200 Million Yuan Pre-A Round to Advance Non-Invasive AI Brain-Computer Interfaces
BCI-Sonics, a Shanghai-based non-invasive AI brain-computer interface (BCI) company, has announced the completion of a 200 million yuan Pre-A financing round co-led by Sequoia China and Yunqi Partners. The round included participation from Proxima Investment, Oriza Holdings, Xuhui Venture Capital, and Deshi Investment, with continued support from existing shareholders Matrix Partners China and Delian Capital. The proceeds will be used for product development, core talent recruitment, clinical research advancement, and AI infrastructure. The company has previously completed angel and angel+ rounds, bringing cumulative funding to nearly 300 million yuan since its founding.
Founded in 2025 and headquartered in Shanghai, BCI-Sonics focuses on ultrasound neuromodulation, multimodal brain reading, and AI neural decoding. The company operates three product lines spanning research, clinical, and consumer technology, with the goal of becoming a benchmark enterprise in China’s non-invasive AI brain-computer interface sector and growing into a Neuro AI company built on brain data. The company’s FUS-BCI series has completed two generations of product development with corresponding safety reports, and its closed-loop ultrasound BCI system is planned to enter clinical trials in the first quarter of 2027. Its consumer-facing closed-loop BCI product has entered batch validation, and the company is accelerating development of multimodal brain reading, its Neuro AI platform, and CNS drug-device combination products, with strategic partnerships already established with a major international pharmaceutical company.
BCI-Sonics was founded by serial entrepreneur Li Xin, a biomedical engineering PhD jointly trained by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Germany’s Fraunhofer IGD. Li joined GE Healthcare in 2015, growing from a life sciences scientist to head of GE’s Global R&D Center in China, and previously founded technology and medical companies. The core team comes from Tsinghua University, Imperial College London, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Zhejiang University, covering neuroscience, acoustics, medical imaging, artificial intelligence, materials science, and clinical translation, with experience spanning prototype development through clinical validation and regulatory registration.
Li Xin, Founder and CEO of BCI-Sonics, said the brain-computer interface industry has shifted over the past year from concept to industrialization, with investors now asking when products will enter hospitals and homes rather than whether the approach is correct. Li noted that the company’s requirements are clear: writing to the brain must reach deep structures and cover the whole brain, reading the brain must be multimodal and quantifiable, and decoding must rely on AI rather than experience. Li added that all devices are essentially sensors, and when brain data reaches sufficient scale and quality, it will become the foundation of the next generation of AI — a concept the company calls Neuroscience for AI. Li said the proceeds will be invested entirely in products, talent, clinical work, and AI infrastructure.
