US-based neural interface technology developer Ctrl-Labs has received $28m in a funding round co-led by GV, a subsidiary of internet and technology group Alphabet, and venture capital firm Lux Capital.
E-commerce and smart device company Amazon took part through its Alexa Fund, along with Vulcan Capital, Founders Fund, Spark Capital, Matrix Partners, Breyer Capital, Fuel Capital and private investors including Tim O’Reilly, Stewart Butterfield, Dave Gilboa, Cyan Banister and Mike Slade.
Founded in 2015, Ctrl-Labs is working on a system that will use a wireless smart armband to decode neural signals sent from the brain to a user’s hands.
Thomas Reardon, co-founder and CEO of Ctrl-Labs, told the New York Times: “If we can recreate virtually what the hand is doing, then we have captured all the information that’s coming out of the muscles themselves.”
The system would allow users to track and decode the meaning of individual neurons, and the technology could also be used to recreate the motion and positioning of individual joints or fingers for use in 3D modelling.
Ctrl-Labs has now raised $39m in total, and Spark Capital, Matrix Partners, Breyer Capital and Fuel Capital all took part in the new round as existing backers, according to a blog post by Lux Capital managing partner Josh Wolfe. Glaser Investments is also an earlier backer.