A blood vessel, a borrowed medical procedure, and an iPad: Synchron is testing whether a less intrusive brain implant can give people with paralysis more control over everyday life.
A film of 1,024 electrodes sits on the cortex without piercing it. Precision is using that design to build a business in brain mapping - and a path toward computer control for people with paralysis.
Dan Furman is a neuroscientist and the co-founder and CEO of Arctop, a company building the software intelligence layer that decodes human brain signals in real time from everyday wearables like headbands, earbuds and VR headsets. A Harvard-trained neurobiologist with a Technion PhD, he once helped adapt a sleep-monitoring device into a brain-computer interface for Stephen Hawking, and his doctoral work showed that non-invasive scalp sensors could control individual neuroprosthetic fingers. In 2023 Arctop raised a $10M Series A to apply its 'Brain ID' and real-time cognition technology across medicine, education, cybersecurity and entertainment.
Axoft is a Cambridge, Massachusetts neurotechnology company building implantable brain-computer interfaces (iBCIs) out of Fleuron, a proprietary material it claims is up to 10,000x softer than the polyimide used in conventional brain implants. By making electronics roughly as soft as brain tissue, Axoft aims to keep thousands of sensors in stable contact with single neurons for years instead of months - reducing scarring and signal loss - to diagnose and eventually treat disorders of consciousness, paralysis, and other neurological conditions. A Harvard spinout founded in 2021, it raised an oversubscribed $55M Series A in April 2026 and has run first-in-human studies in 11+ patients worldwide.