Blackrock Neurotech, a world leading firm developing chips for brain implants, has got the funding from venture capitalist Peter Thiel, who, in 1998, had co-founded PayPal with Elon Musk.
Neuralink, co-founded by Elon Musk is a neurotechnology company developing implantable brain–machine interfaces (BMIs) and building devices now that will help people with paralysis and inventing new technologies that will expand our abilities, our community, and our world.
Blackrock co founded by Professor Florian Solzbacher, is the global leader in identifying, developing, and scaling approved medical devices for neurological therapies. They target to empower the restoration of brain’s function and make people to walk, talk, see, hear, and feel again.
The two companies are competitors in neuro technology and in making BCI – Brain Computer Interfaces.
Blackrock Neurotech, has closed a $10 million financing round, led by Christian Angermayer’s re.Mind Capital with funding from from Peter Thiel, German entrepreneur Tim Sievers, and Sorenson Impact’s University Venture Fund II.
Christian Angermayer and Jan Hardorp of re.Mind, as well as Tim Sievers will join the Blackrock Neurotech Board of Directors.
“Blackrock is at the forefront of making BCI in humans a reality,” said Marcus Gerhardt, CEO and co-founder of Blackrock Neurotech. “Dozens of human patients are currently using our implants and technology to accomplish things directly with their minds that were unimaginable ten years ago. We have spent over a decade developing our technology with several hundred of the world’s leading research institutions and over 20 clinical partner centers.”
Blackrock Neurotech has powered a wide range of “firsts” in human BCI applications: for example, the first to provide tetraplegic patients the ability to control robotic limbs directly from and with the brain; and the first to enable ALS patients, even completely locked-in ones, to communicate again via an auditory speller, directly controlled by their mind. Angermayer concluded, “In the future, I can see BCI devices becoming more common than cardiac pacemakers are today. The ultimate potential of this technology is to be a fundamental input-output device used by large portions of society. We can responsibly unlock truly astonishing use cases and abilities and I believe Blackrock will be the one to take us there.”
