Brain-interface tech startup Paradromics raises $7m in seed funding

Medtech startup Paradromics said today it raised $7 million in seed round funding to help support its brain-machine interface technology intended to allow patients with severe connectivity disorders to operate advanced prosthetic devices.

The San Jose, Calif.-based company is developing brain-machine interface tech intended to allow patients with disorders including blindness, deafness and paralysis to connect to the world with advanced prosthetics. An initial focus of the system will be allowing patients who are unable to communicate fluently to be able to speak in real time with the aid of a computer.

“We are developing our technology to power the next wave of neural interfacing medical devices — from advanced prosthetics to bioelectronic medicine. The high-bandwidth feature of our technology has revolutionary implications for the field of neuro-prosthetics and beyond. The financial backing and strategic expertise of our investors will help us expand the team, grow the IP portfolio and more rapidly execute our technical development plan,” founder & CEO Matt Angle said in a prepared statement.

The round was led by newly invested Arkitekt Ventures and Synergy Ventures and joined by It-Farm, Dolby Ventures, Alphon Edison, Loup Ventures and previously invested Fusion Fund, Paradromics said.

As part of the funding round, Arkitekt Ventures managing director Enke Bashllari will join the company’s board of directors.

“We are thrilled to back this team of leading scientists and engineers. They are fundamentally changing the way that humans and computers will interact and are opening the door to a whole new field of medicine. The future of BMI goes way beyond conventional prosthetics. Soon, we will address brain diseases not only via a small molecule or biologics, but via targeted electrical signals. Closed loop systems that enable high bandwidth interfacing of the cortex with the outside world (and vice-versa) will radically improve patients’ lives,” Bashllari said in a press release.

Funds raised will be added to approximately $18 million the company received in research funding from the Defense Advances Research Projects Agency won as part of DARPA’s Neural Engineering System Design program.

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