Neurotech Notables #49: Feb 16-28, 2026
Let's March: $350m+ New Capital & Marquee Partnerships
Hello Readers,
Case of the Mondays? Here are a few dozen new tabs of notable neurotech news and views to start off your week right.
$350 million in new funding for brain health, from Salma’s health clinics to medical implants by Envoy, Pharaoh, and Inspire, as well as wearables, neuroimaging, and more grant awards.
In commercial news, Science Corp’s partnership with Neurosoft leads a slate of important market activity spanning neurosurgical platforms, mental health clinics, and new appointments at startups, nonprofits, and VC. On the flipside, Kintsugi’s shutdown and conversion to open-source is a signal not to ignore.
New ARPA-H program targets critical care immune system innovation. New ARIA program deadline coming up soon! Startups announce clinical advances in stroke care, tinnitus, pain, depression, and cognitive health.
Sharena Rice launches a new standards initiative worth a closer look. New Prizes available for researchers around the world. Don’t forget about the company-funded grants in last issue. And if you’re wondering what comes after BCI, scroll down for a Canine-Computer Interface (CCI.)
There’s lots more as usual, too but it’s a busy time so we’ll keep it moving: Scroll down for fresh reporting, commentary, conversations, and some of that elusive “thought leadership” too. On that note: Stay tuned for updates and plenty of fresh content from Neurotech Futures in the coming weeks!
👋🏽 Hi, I’m Naveen. I believe brain health is human health. You are one of the 4,015 readers of my biweekly reports on emerging neurotech markets.
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Resonant Link Medical: Preserve capital and derisk development while making your device smaller, smarter and longer lasting. Book time with Resonant Link Medical — or reach out at LSI — to find out how.
NANS: Share your expertise across key neuromodulation areas—including basic science, neural engineering, and clinical innovation—by submitting a session proposal for NANS 2027 Annual Meeting; proposals due March 10th.
TTP: Rethinking Regulatory Compliance - For Class III wearables and implantables, compliance can either slow you down, or become the discipline that keeps development moving fast and credibly. Read the full insight
Datwyler: Datwyler’s SoftPulse® electrodes are powering the OpenEarable ExG platform to bring clinical-grade sleep tracking out of the lab and into the real world. Learn more on OpenEarable ExG and the PASCEI project.
BrainMind: Explore BrainMind’s Alzheimer’s Prevention Pyramid: a landscape of over 50 concrete actions you can take to support a healthy brain as we age: https://brainmind.org/alzheimers-prevention-pyramid
Funding
Salma Health: $80 Million Series A Raised To Launch Integrated Brain Health Centers Of Excellence. (Pulse 2.0 | Salma Health | Blog Post)
Envoy Medical Announces Pricing of Up to $78.0 Million Upsized Public Offering (Yahoo Finance)
Neurent Medical Raises €62.5 million in Oversubscribed Series C Financing to Accelerate NEUROMARK® Commercial Expansion to treat Chronic Rhinitis (Neuromark)
Related: Impedance-Controlled Multipoint Radiofrequency Ablation for Chronic Rhinitis: A Randomized Controlled Trial (IFAR)
Temple raises $54M at a $190M post-money valuation, backed by Steadview Capital, Peak XV Partners, and Info Edge Ventures (Linkedin | Fortune India)
ProSomnus secures $38M to advance oral sleep apnea treatments (Medical Device)
Related: Obstructive sleep apnoea costs UK and US economies £137bn a year, research finds (Guardian)
Pharaoh Neuro raises $20M, names former Medtronic exec as CEO (MassDevice | Amara Reitmeier)
Enspire DBS Therapy Announces $10.3 Million Series B1 Financing to Advance Pivotal Development of DBS-Enabled Stroke Rehabilitation (PR Newswire)
Clee Medical secures Seed Financing to advance Real-Time Brain Imaging for Neurosurgery (Founders Today)
BrainCheck Raises $13 Million to Expand AI-Enabled Cognitive Care Platform (Yahoo Finance)
UT Southwestern and UTMB Awarded $500,000 TRC4 Grant to Study Non-Invasive Neurostimulation for Chronic Subdural Hematomas (Globe Newswire)
CABHI awards $2.6M to 26 startups help healthcare organizations adopt innovative brain health solutions (CABHI)
“As part of the program, CABHI facilitated a match between each participating organization and an innovative solution specifically designed to address a challenge that is negatively impacting that organization’s ability to provide quality care to older persons.”
Science & PINS Prize for Neuromodulation (Science)
NERVE Program Application (Ontario Brain Institute)
Commercial
Science, Neurosoft partner on BCI tech (Mass Device | Linkedin)
The AWS of Brain Implants (Neurotech Digest)
Lifeward’s ReWalk Personal Exoskeleton Now Covered by Aetna, Coverage Expands to Include Three of the Largest MA Insurers (Lifeward)
Health Systems and Strategic Partners Unite to Address Widening Healthcare Gaps in Rural and Underserved Communities (NSCAC)
Dileep George joins Astera to lead its neuro-inspired AGI effort (Astera Institute)
Global Collaboration to Advance AI-Driven Discovery for Alzheimer’s Prevention Announced (EIN Presswire)
Amber Therapeutics strengthens its Board and Leadership team, opens UK headquarters and expands EU feasibility study for mixed urinary incontinence, increasing momentum towards a pivotal trial in the US (First Word Pharma)
Magnus Medical Moves to Protect Intellectual Property Behind Breakthrough SAINT Accelerated Depression Therapy (Morning Star)
Stella Mental Health Expands Boston-Area Services with New Newton Clinic as Chief Psychiatric Officer Dr. Brian Boyle Selected 2026 National SPRAVATO Bureau Speaker (PR Newswire)
X3 Holdings Expands Into AI Healthcare Through Strategic Smartwatch Partnership (PR Newswire)
Walter Koroshetz Joins the Dana Foundation as a Senior Advisor (PR Newswire)
CSD acquisition Advances Access to Breakthrough Autism and Behavioral Care in the Southwest US (PR Newswire)
CraniUS Therapeutics Appoints J&J Senior Executive, Oray Boston Jr. to Board of Directors (PR Newswire)
Sam Hosovsky joins Jumpspace Ventures as Venture Partner, “focusing on early stage companies emulating the brain, mainly in Japan and China.”
Precision NeuroMed announces strategic partnership with BrainLab to develop AI-enabled treatment planning platform for Convection Enhanced Delivery (CED) to the brain (Linkedin | Precision Neuromed)
“Under the Joint Development and Commercialization Agreement, Brainlab and PNM will collaborate in the development of the CED treatment planning software. As part of the collaboration, Brainlab has been granted an equity interest in PNM, reflecting a shared commitment to the long-term development and adoption of this technology.”
Why clinical AI startup Kintsugi shut down (Endpoints), makes “$30m Gift to Mental Health Community” by open-sourcing work.
Regulatory
ARPA-H launches program to revolutionize critical care and help prevent life-threatening events (ARPA-H)
Critical Illness Immunological Reprogramming and Control Point Learning Engine (CIRCLE) program, a leading-edge initiative to better track the body’s immune response during critical illness so care clinicians can personalize treatments and save lives.
Register for Proposers Day March 11
Nexalin Participates in and Commends Recent Congressional Momentum Supporting Deep Brain Neurostimulation Research for Veterans and Neurological Disorders (Nexalin Technology)
Nexalin Announces Pivotal HALO Clarity Trial to Support Planned De Novo FDA Submission Targeting Multi-Billion-Dollar Insomnia Market (Nexalin Technology)
A provocative proposal asks the FDA to let some AI devices on the market without review (Stat Health Tech)
Advocacy News: Bipartisan Support for Focused Ultrasound (Focused Ultrasound Foundation)
Community Board
🆕Post an ad - Highlight key news, events, roles, or opportunities to connect!
OctaneOC: Octane’s Neurotech Forum announced for March 26-27, 2026. Let me know if you are an investor or startup interested in attending!
BADASS Labs: The Nonprofit Advantage: How BADASS Labs Flips Biotech Success Rates to 95% - Read More & Inquire Today
Carter Sciences joins Substack with “The Neurotech Newsletter.” See their newest piece, “Brain–Computer Interfaces in 2026: The Translation Era Is Here (But the Hard Parts Didn’t Go Away)”
Industry
Neurotechnology Standards and Governance: A Curated Reference for Innovators (Sharena Rice | Linkedin)
Speech Decoding: Where and How (e184)
Leader in the Neurotech Spotlight: Andreas Forsland, CEO, Cognition (This is Crux)
Viewpoint: neurotech deserves an EU research moonshot (Science Business)
App Helps Cedars-Sinai Improve Parkinson’s Care (Cedars Sinai)
BCI: What’s standing in the way of pivotal trials, FDA approval (Stat News)
Austin Startup Turns Thought Into Motion for Amputees (CBS Austin)
Closing the loop on mental health:How high-bandwidth brain-computer interfaces could transform psychiatric treatment (Paradromics)
Precision’s Brain Storm BCI Hackathon 2026 (Joe Sharron)
Advanced TMS Protocol Demonstrates Increased Remission Rates in Depression (PR Newswire)
New Directions Mental Health Expanding Life-Saving Treatment (PR Newswire)
Neuromod Devices reports positive Lenire tinnitus device data (Mass Device)
Health Moonshot Update: Sana Health’s Regulatory Breakthrough in Pain Control (Startup Health)
Kandu trial highlights positive outcomes with IpsiHand BCI system (Mass Device)
Zyphra Releases ZUNA - BCI Foundation Model Advancing Towards Thought-to-Text (PR Newswire)
Case Review: Long-term pain implants and weight loss (Dr. John Hagedorn)
2025 Advances in Brain Health: Brain Health as Capital for Vascular and Cognitive Resilience (AHA Journals)
NeuroPerspective has released a Neurogram+ (Linkedin)
Smelling Alzheimer’s Early and Treating It With Sound (LinkedIn)
Leader in the Neurotech Spotlight: Tetiana Aleksandranova, Co-Founder, CEO, Subsense (This is Cruxx)
Horao Neurolabs reveals their new company name (Linkedin)
Neurotech.TV
Living Human Brain Cells Play DOOM on a CL1 (Youtube)
A gentle introduction into the human brain (Spotify)
Is The Brain an Analog Computer? Consciousness as Dynamic Brainwave Organization (Youtube)
Humans of Neuroscience: Interview with Dr. Elisa Kallioniemi (Youtube)
Dark Patterns, Deceptive Design, and Neurodata with Dr. Mark Leiser (Neurotech Now Podcast)
Society
Your Brain, Their Rules: The Growing Patchwork of Neural Data Regulation (Cooley)
When Research Priorities Move Backward, Communities Pay the Price (RxFoundation)
Walter Koroshetz Joins the Dana Foundation as Senior Advisor (PR Newswire)
Viewpoint: neurotechnology deserves an EU research moonshot (Science Business)
Why the ADHD brain is a perfect pairing for AI (Fast Company)
Cognitive and Neuropsychiatric Function in Former American Football Players (Jama)
Introducing new Neuroethics News series by Erica Schug (Linkedin)
As Brain Organoid Science Grows More Complex, So Do the Questions (UNDARK)
Reframing the Risks of Deep Brain Stimulation: A Comparison of 2.8 Million Elective Surgeries From the NSQIP Database (Annals of Neurology)
We’re at neurotechnology’s regulatory frontier – here’s what policymakers need to know (WEF)
The $3 Billion Brain Health Research Initiative in Texas (MMHPI)
Israeli defense official: “We are working on using the brain to communicate with drones” (Calcalistech)
New National Agenda Paves the Way for Improved Parkinson’s Care (Parkinson’s Foundation)
Final Note, Finally (Experiment) - a functional canine movement ML model for vibrotactile haptic platforms
Research
Transcranial focused ultrasound stimulation enhances semantic memory by modulating brain morphology, neurochemistry and neural dynamics (Nature)
Focused ultrasound neuromodulation for psychiatric disorders: a scoping review of clinical applications and current progress (Journal of Neural Transmission)
A retrospective study to assess clinical outcomes among patients receiving a novel sequential bilateral transcranial magnetic stimulation protocol for depression (TMS Journal)
Neurophysiological and behavioral effects of oscillatory transcranial direct current stimulation (otDCS) (Journal of Neuroscience Methods)
Noninvasive brain stimulation combined with evidence-based psychotherapy for psychiatric disorders: A meta-analysis of optimal implementation parameters (medRxiv)
What’s the age of your brain? Neurotechnology study by Colorado doctor has the answer (CBS News)
A neural network for modeling human concept formation, understanding and communication (Nature Computational Science)
CL API: Real-Time Closed-Loop Interactions with Biological Neural Networks (Cornell University)
Human hippocampal neurogenesis in adulthood, ageing and Alzheimer’s disease (Nature)
Neurosurgeons Are Really Good at Removing Brain Tumors, and They’re About to Get Even Better (CMU)
Neural Vision Restoration in Ophthalmology (Annals of BME)
Abdominal ultrasound activates afferent vagus nerve fibers and induces anti-inflammatory effects (PNAS)
New Clinical Trial Will Assess Brain Tumor Changes After Blood-Brain Barrier Opening (FUSF)
That’s a wrap! What did I miss? Drop us a note for next time.