Ctrl-Labs raises $28m for neural interface tech

Neural interface developer Ctrl-Labs has raised $28 million in a new round of equity financing, joined by both Google and Amazon, to support its non-invasive electromyography tech designed to translate neural signals into digital input.

The round was led by Google‘s (NSDQ:GOOG) venture arm, GV, and joined by the Amazon Alexa Fund, Lux Capital, Spark Capital, Matrix Partners, Breyer Capital and Fuel Capital and brings the total raised to date by the company to $67 million, the New York-based company said.

“Ctrl-labs’ development of neural interfaces will empower developers to create novel experiences across a wide variety of applications. The company has assembled a team of top neuroscientists, engineers, and developers with deep technology backgrounds, creating human-computer interactions unlike anything we have seen before,” GV general partner Erik Nordlander said in a prepared release.

Ctrl-Labs is developing the Ctrl-kit, a 16-electrode wireless electromyography device that measures changes in electric potential as recorded by impulses that travel from the brain to muscles in the hand.

The system uses advanced algorithms to identify singular nerve impulses which can be translated into control for a number of different applications.

Ctrl-Kit said it is hopeful the device will see use in fields including clinical research, robotics, extended-reality applications and in boosting productivity.

“Like the developers and creators we hear from, we feel fundamentally dissatisfied with the pervading technologies of the last century. Our objective with Ctrl-kit is to give the industry’s most ambitious minds the tools they need to reimagine the relationship between humans and machines,” Ctrl-Labs CEO Thomas Reardon said in a prepared statement.

The company has begun to offer the development kit to a select number of developers, but hasn’t officially named any specific developers.

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