Science Corp raises $230M to bring its blindness implant to market
What's the deal? Science Corp, a neurotechnology startup founded in 2021, has raised $230 million in a Series C round, bringing its total funding to roughly $490 million. Reports put the post-money valuation at between $1.25 billion and $1.5 billion, though the company has not confirmed a figure.
Investors include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, Y Combinator, and In-Q-Tel, a nonprofit venture firm founded by the CIADealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → to invest in national security technology. The money will fund the commercialisation of PRIMA, a wireless retinal implant for blindness, and the development of more advanced brain-computer interface devices.
PRIMA is a chip that sits at the back of the eye and works alongside a pair of specialised glasses to restore central vision in people with advanced macular degeneration. A study published in October 2025 in the New England Journal of Medicine found the system improved vision in 26 of 32 patients.
Why now? Science has submitted PRIMA for regulatory approval in both Europe and the US, and expects to launch commercially in Europe later this year. The company is now in active talks with the US Food and Drug AdministrationDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → about using its European trial data to support a US approval. The raise is timed to fund that commercial push as decisions loom.
The FDA granted PRIMA a Breakthrough Device designation in 2023 — a fast-track status for devices that could offer significant improvement over existing treatments.
What could go wrong? FDA approval is never guaranteed. PRIMA does not restore vision immediately; it requires months of training, and its current version targets a relatively small patient population — between 3,000 and 6,000 people a year in the US with advanced macular degeneration. That limits near-term commercial scale, even if the device clears regulators.
Reimbursement is also an open question. Khosla Ventures founder Vinod KhoslaDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has said he expects insurers to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars per procedure, but coverage decisions for novel implants can take years and are far from assured.
The signal: Science is the second-most valuable brain implant company in the US, behind only Elon MuskDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →'s Neuralink — and unlike Neuralink, it has published peer-reviewed clinical data and is actively seeking regulatory approval.
Investors have now poured more than $2 billion into the six major US brain-computer interface companies, betting that the field is approaching a commercial inflection point.
Science's expected European launch this year would make it the first such company to reach the market at scale, a milestone that could reshape how regulators, insurers, and rivals approach the entire category.
Sources:
Science Corporation
TechCrunch
Bloomberg
Tech Funding News
FinSMEs
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SiliconANGLE
Medical Device Network
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Science Corporation
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