(Bloomberg) — Precision Neuroscience Corp., a brain implant rival to Neuralink Corp. by Elon Musk, has raised $93 million of a planned $100 million funding round, according to a person familiar with the matter. The deal valued the startup at around $500 million.

The new funding round gives the company a boost as it looks to take on Neuralink, which has raised more than $685 million, and other companies in the sector, including Science, which has raised $150 million. dollars.

A Precision spokeswoman declined to comment. A Securities and Exchange Commission filing shows the company had filed to raise up to $150 million.

Precision was founded in 2021 by neurosurgeon Ben Rapoport, co-founder of Neuralink, and CEO Michael Mager. Last year, it raised $41 million.

Startups working on brain implants and associated technologies, or brain-machine interfaces, have gained considerable momentum in recent months. Neuralink’s device was administered to its first human patient in a trial conducted earlier this year. And a team from the University of California, Davis, implanted a device in an ALS patient that allowed him to speak through a machine with unprecedented precision by reading his brain signals.

Precision’s device is called the Layer 7 Cortical Interface, referring to the six layers that make up the cerebral cortex, and represents a compromise between invasive and non-invasive brain-computer interface technologies. This requires surgery and an incision of the skull, but not the brain tissue. Instead, the device is placed on top of the organ, a method that the company says prevents damage to that brain’s tissue.

This contrasts with devices from companies such as Blackrock Neurotech, Inbrain Neuroelectronics SL, Neuralink and Paradromics, located in brain tissue. A Synchron device enters the brain like a stent, via blood vessels, and ultimately places itself near the brain’s motor cortex. Another company, Science, says it is working on devices that can be placed both on or in brain tissue.

Precision’s device has not yet received the green light from regulators, but it is being tested. The startup has implanted its device in several patients, albeit temporarily during surgeries, where the main goal was linked to another goal, such as removing brain tumors. While the operation is in progress and with the patient’s permission, the Precision team sets up their Layer 7 and uses it to detect neurological signals.

The company has sought approval from the Food and Drug Administration for a version of its device intended for temporary use for hospital monitoring and said it hopes to bring it to market next year. This would provide a source of revenue for the young company as it works on its other device: a permanent implant to treat paralysis. Such a device, if it works, will take years before its approval and commercial deployment.

In a recent surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, Precision tested placing four of its microelectrode arrays – each one-fifth the thickness of a human hair – on the surface of the brain. ‘a patient. Each array contains 1,024 electrodes, so deploying four arrays gives a total of 4,096, creating an unusually high level of detail. Competitors have much less. Neuralink’s device, for example, has 1,024 electrodes.

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