# Did a Six-Month-Old Chinese BCI Startup Just Set a Funding Record?

RMB330 million. That is the size of the angel round closed by Shanghai-based invasive [brain-computer interface](https://bciintel.com/glossary/brain-computer-interface) startup Active Technology (主动科技) — the largest angel financing in China's BCI sector on record, according to the company. The round was led by Zhongke Chuangxing and joined by Lenovo Star, 9 Capital, Daotong Investment, Inno Angel Fund, Huada Songhe Biotech Fund, Jifeng Capital, and Jiadao Capital. Active Technology was founded in February 2026, meaning it secured this record round within roughly six months of incorporation. The company plans to use the capital to expand facilities, advance clinical trials, and grow headcount. Its product roadmap spans motor, visual, and [affective BCI](https://bciintel.com/glossary/affective-bci) modalities, with full-stack development covering flexible [electrode arrays](https://bciintel.com/glossary/electrode-array), dedicated application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), decoding algorithms, and system integration. The sheer capital volume at angel stage, combined with the breadth of the stated product roadmap, makes this one of the most significant early-stage BCI financing events globally in 2026 — and a clear signal that Chinese institutional capital is accelerating its bet on domestically developed invasive neural interfaces.

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## What Is Active Technology and Why Does the Funding Amount Matter?

Active Technology (主动科技) is an invasive BCI company headquartered in Shanghai, established in February 2026. Its RMB330 million angel round is notable not just for its size but for the stage at which it was raised. Angel rounds at this capital level are exceptionally rare anywhere in the world for hardware-intensive medical device companies — let alone for a company less than a year old.

To put the investor syndicate in context: Zhongke Chuangxing is affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences investment ecosystem, Lenovo Star is the venture arm of Lenovo Group, and Huada Songhe Biotech Fund carries ties to BGI Group, one of China's largest genomics and life sciences conglomerates. The presence of eight investors across a single angel round suggests coordinated strategic interest rather than opportunistic early-stage speculation.

The source material does not disclose the company's post-money valuation, so any figure on that would be speculative. What is verifiable: the company has already built out a 2,500-square-meter combined office and GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) workshop facility, and it is targeting a new headquarters exceeding 10,000 square meters by end of 2026. Building GMP-compliant manufacturing capacity this early in a company's life is an aggressive but deliberate signal — GMP certification is a prerequisite for producing devices used in regulated clinical trials under China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA).

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## A Full-Stack Ambition Across Three BCI Modalities

Active Technology's stated product roadmap is unusually broad for a pre-clinical-stage company. Three target modalities are listed in the source material:

- **Motor BCI** — the most developed application category globally, targeting restoration of voluntary movement control in paralysis
- **Visual BCI** — intracortical visual prosthetics targeting the visual cortex, a technically demanding area where very few companies worldwide have active implantable programs
- **Affective/Emotional BCI** — the least mature category, involving neural decoding of emotional states, sometimes referred to in the literature as [affective BCI](https://bciintel.com/glossary/affective-bci)

The full-stack development approach — covering flexible electrodes, dedicated chips, decoding algorithms, and full system integration — mirrors the vertical integration strategy pursued by [Neuralink Corp](https://bciintel.com/companies/neuralink) in the United States. Flexible electrode development in particular is a technically demanding discipline: thin-film polymer substrates must achieve both mechanical compliance with neural tissue and long-term electrical stability. The source does not provide electrode counts, materials specifications, channel counts, or decoding accuracy benchmarks for any of Active Technology's platforms.

**Analytical note:** Breadth at this stage cuts both ways. A three-modality roadmap maximizes addressable market and investor appeal, but each modality represents a distinct regulatory pathway, surgical indication, and clinical trial design. Chinese BCI companies including [Neuracle Medical Technology](https://bciintel.com/companies/neuracle-medical) have historically focused on narrower initial indications before expanding. Whether Active Technology can execute across motor, visual, and emotional applications simultaneously — without published preclinical data yet in the public domain — is the central execution risk here.

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## China's BCI Funding Environment in 2026

This round reflects a broader acceleration in Chinese government and institutional support for invasive BCI development. The "14th Five-Year Plan" and subsequent national-level AI and neurotechnology directives have explicitly identified BCI as a strategic technology sector, which has catalyzed provincial and municipal government-linked funds to co-invest alongside private capital.

China's NMPA has been developing BCI-specific regulatory guidance, and domestic companies are acutely aware that a domestically approved invasive BCI device would carry significant geopolitical and commercial weight — particularly as U.S.-China technology decoupling has made access to Western BCI platforms an open question for Chinese clinical and research institutions.

Active Technology's plan to advance clinical trials as a use of proceeds is the most significant near-term indicator to watch. The source does not specify which indication will enter trials first, what trial phase is targeted, or whether any NMPA communications have occurred. For a company founded in February 2026, any human implant trial before end of 2027 would represent an exceptionally compressed timeline — though not without precedent in the Chinese regulatory environment for early feasibility studies.

For context on where the motor BCI space intersects with robotic applications, [humanoidintel.ai](https://humanoidintel.ai) tracks developments in neural-controlled robotic systems that may eventually converge with platforms like Active Technology's motor BCI roadmap.

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## What This Means for the Global BCI Industry

The Active Technology round is a data point in a larger pattern: the center of gravity in invasive BCI investment is no longer exclusively in the United States. While [Neuralink Corp](https://bciintel.com/companies/neuralink), [Precision Neuroscience](https://bciintel.com/companies/precision-neuroscience), and [Synchron](https://bciintel.com/companies/synchron) dominate the current regulatory and clinical headlines in the West, Chinese startups are closing the capital gap rapidly — and in some cases, operating under a regulatory timeline that may allow earlier first-in-human studies.

The competitive implication for Western BCI companies: data exclusivity, IP protection, and regulatory approval timelines in the U.S. and EU remain meaningful moats, but they are not permanent ones if Chinese competitors reach demonstrated clinical efficacy with GMP-manufactured devices within the next three to four years.

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## Key Takeaways

- Active Technology (主动科技), founded February 2026 in Shanghai, closed a RMB330 million angel round — the largest in China's BCI sector on record
- The round was led by Zhongke Chuangxing with seven co-investors including Lenovo Star and Huada Songhe Biotech Fund
- The company's roadmap covers motor, visual, and emotional (affective) invasive BCI, plus full-stack hardware and software development
- Active Technology already operates a 2,500 sq meter GMP workshop and plans a 10,000+ sq meter headquarters by end of 2026
- No published preclinical data, electrode specifications, decoding benchmarks, or NMPA filing status were disclosed in the source material
- Proceeds are targeted at facilities expansion, clinical trial advancement, equipment, and hiring

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## Frequently Asked Questions

**What is Active Technology (主动科技)?**
Active Technology is a Shanghai-based invasive brain-computer interface startup founded in February 2026. It focuses on full-stack invasive BCI development including flexible electrodes, dedicated chips, and neural decoding algorithms across motor, visual, and affective BCI modalities.

**How large was Active Technology's angel round and why is it significant?**
Active Technology raised RMB330 million in an angel round — which the company states is a record for angel financing in China's BCI sector. The round is significant both for its size and for being raised within six months of the company's founding.

**Who led Active Technology's funding round?**
The round was led by Zhongke Chuangxing, with participation from Lenovo Star, 9 Capital, Daotong Investment, Inno Angel Fund, Huada Songhe Biotech Fund, Jifeng Capital, and Jiadao Capital — eight investors in total.

**What will Active Technology use the RMB330 million for?**
According to the company, proceeds will fund facility expansion (including a planned 10,000+ square meter headquarters by end of 2026), equipment, clinical trial advancement, and team growth.

**How does Active Technology compare to U.S. invasive BCI companies?**
At angel stage, Active Technology has raised capital comparable to early Series A rounds at leading U.S. invasive BCI firms. However, it has not yet published preclinical or clinical data, and no regulatory submissions have been publicly disclosed. U.S. competitors like Neuralink and Precision Neuroscience have active human implant trials and published performance data, representing a meaningful clinical evidence gap that Active Technology will need to close.

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*This article is based on a TechNode report sourced from PEdaily (in Chinese). All figures and company details are drawn directly from that source material. This article reflects early-stage company disclosures and does not constitute medical advice. Active Technology's BCI platforms have not yet received regulatory clearance in any jurisdiction and have no established clinical efficacy data in the public domain.*