Bridge Neurotech launches with $13.5M to challenge Altman-backed Merge Labs
What's the deal? Bridge NeurotechDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has launched with $13.5 million in funding, including backing from General Catalyst, to build an ultrasound-powered brain-computer interface. The startup enters a growing field racing to translate brain signals into useful actions — and takes aim at Sam Altman-backed rival Merge Labs.
What's the endgame? Founder and chief executive officer Will Biederman wants to build a wearable device, not a surgical implant. He developed the chip Neuralink licensed for its first devices during his PhD work, but says Bridge reflects "a difference in vision."
Why now? Only about 100 people worldwide have received an implanted brain-computer interface in clinical trials, including at least 21 who got Neuralink's device. "Nobody really wants a hole in their head," Biederman says, adding that the risks of neurosurgery "really cannot be minimized or dismissed."
How does it work? Bridge bets on ultrasound as an alternative to implants and external electrical sensors. The technology uses high-frequency sound waves to measure blood flow, which in the brain closely follows neural activity.
What could go wrong? Wearable brain-computer interfaces have long struggled with poor signal quality, as bone and skin weaken electrical signals before they reach external sensors. That is why most rivals — including Neuralink, Synchron, Paradromics, and Precision Neuroscience — record electrical impulses directly from neurons, requiring surgery.
The backers. General Catalyst has also funded Anduril, Anthropic, Airbnb, and Stripe. Both Bridge and Merge Labs have ties to Arbor NeuroscienceDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, formerly Forest Neurotech, a nonprofit Biederman co-founded in 2023 that built an ultrasound brain-imaging instrument now in UK trials.
The signal: The race to commercialise brain-computer interfaces is widening beyond invasive implants. Bridge's bet is that a non-surgical, ultrasound-based approach could reach far more people than devices that currently serve only a few dozen patients.
Read more: WIRED
Image credit: jurvetson
