GV, an investment subsidiary of internet and technology group Alphabet, has led a $28m funding round for US-based neural interface technology developer Ctrl-Labs, VentureBeat reported on Friday.
Alexa Fund, the venture capital vehicle for US-based e-commerce and cloud computing company Amazon, also took part in the round, as did Lux Capital, Spark Capital, Matrix Partners, Breyer Capital and Fuel Capital.
Ctrl-Labs is building a watch-like armband that captures the information coming out of the muscles by reading and decoding the neutral signals sent from the brain to the hand. The company expects virtual reality games to be the device’s top application.
The company also recently announced plans to launch developer kit called Ctrl-kit, which enables users to integrate neural controls into their applications.
In addition to funding the development and distribution of Ctrl-kit, capital from the round will also be used to support commercial partnerships and to expand its research and development lab in San Francisco.
The round brings the company’s total funding to $67m. In May last year, Ctrl-Labs collected $28m in a funding round co-led by GV and Lux Capital.
Amazon’s Alexa Fund, Vulcan Capital, Founders Fund, Spark Capital, Matrix Partners, Breyer Capital and Fuel Capital also took part, as did private investors Tim O’Reilly, Stewart Butterfield, Dave Gilboa, Cyan Banister and Mike Slade.
Spark, Matrix, Breyer and Fuel and Glaser Investments were all investors in the company prior to the 2018 round.