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Fintech Deals

Neuralink cofounder Max Hodak has raised a little under $260 million for his new startup, Science Corp. amid an explosion of funding to the brain-computer interface space. 

Context: The company's Prima implant, a visual prosthesis aimed at macular degeneration-related blindness, gave 80% of patients marked improvements in their vision in a recent clinical trial.

It's also working on a biohybrid that integrates neurons into its interface, and is eyeing a larger field of use cases.

"What the field really needs right now is a company making $100 million a year in revenue," Hodak tells Axios in a conversation on the sidelines of Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal.

Hodak discussed Science Corp.'s new product, the funding environment, and what he's doing differently at his new company. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Tell me more about what vision through Prima looks like.

"They see it as very sharp, but it is like looking through a straw. And the brain does better than you'd expect from the number of electrodes. 

But we want to make bigger chips with smaller electrodes, with thousands of stimulation channels, and get to native acuity, get color, and we're gonna spend hundreds of millions of dollars more doing that."

So who pays for it? Insurance would want it to be lower, too?

"We are way cheaper than the drugs that don't work. Luxterna gets reimbursed $450,000 an eye. And there's a comp that existed 10 years ago: Second Sight had an implant called Argus II that did not get to form vision, but they got to market at $150,000 a patient that had a much worse performance.

 I think that you could imagine it reimbursing in that range, just given the comps. But that's a battle we'll fight once we have market approval.

We'll probably be actually on market first in Europe — we are hoping to have it within the next year. The FDA has been very slow."

Is that related to the recent changes in the administration? 

"It's probably not — it's just that the FDA is slow."

Are there use cases with say Alzheimer's or dementia with the biohybrid device?

"So these organic, neurodegenerative diseases where the brain is just dying off in these diffuse ways are some of the hardest. But we're interested in diseases like Parkinson's, potentially depression, addiction. I think stroke in particular is really interesting."

You last raised $104 million led by Khosla — so what is the valuation? Above a billion, below?

Look, there's a lot capital that's flown into this general area, and a lot of talent. What the field really needs right now is a company making $100 million a year in revenue. Until that is true, there will always be a risk of brain-computer interface winter."

You previously co-founded another brain-computer interface company, Neuralink. What's different about how you're approaching the issue today?

"I think that what Neuralink has done in the patients that you've seen is very cool. 

I think that we had a different vision: The idea of merging with AI is not necessarily a motivating force for Science. There was a different set of problems that I thought were most important to me.

I think Science is a longevity adjacent story. The only organ I really care about is the brain. The rest of the body exists to really support and enable the brain, and the toolbox of neural engineering is just so powerful that it gets to these effect sizes that you don't see in medicine. The million-dollar gene therapy for AMD is relevant only to 5% of patients that have mutation in a specific gene. But in neurostimulation, we don't really care, molecularly, why the cells died.

I think that there's this opportunity to reimagine most of medicine as the thing that matters is the brain that is you, the rest are gonna be swappable parts."

Science Corp. founder: Industry needs $100M revenue player

Hodak discusses latest startup Science Corp.'s new product, the funding environment, and what he's doing differently at his new company.

Science Corp. founder Max Hodak on stage in Lisbon at Web Summit 2025

Max Hodak speaks in Lisbon this week. Photo: Paul Devlin/Sportsfile for Web Summit via Getty Images

Neuralink cofounder Max Hodak has raised a little under $260 million for his new startup, Science Corp. amid an explosion of funding to the <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="br" data-vars-click-url="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-06/neuralink-rival-synchron-raises-200-million-for-brain-implant?embedded-checkout=true" data-vars-content-id="af38ee38-fb12-4350-a3d3-011c3242f77e" data-vars-headline="Science Corp. founder: Industry needs $100M revenue player" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-06/neuralink-rival-synchron-raises-200-million-for-brain-implant?embedded-checkout=true" target="_blank">br</a><a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="ain-computer interface space" data-vars-click-url="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-06/neuralink-rival-synchron-raises-200-million-for-brain-implant?embedded-checkout=true" data-vars-content-id="af38ee38-fb12-4350-a3d3-011c3242f77e" data-vars-headline="Science Corp. founder: Industry needs $100M revenue player" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-06/neuralink-rival-synchron-raises-200-million-for-brain-implant?embedded-checkout=true" target="_blank">ain-computer interface space</a>. Context: The company&#x27;s Prima implant, a visual prosthesis aimed at macular degeneration-related blindness, gave <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="80% of patients" data-vars-click-url="https://time.com/7330887/brain-computer-chips-future-of-medicine/" data-vars-content-id="af38ee38-fb12-4350-a3d3-011c3242f77e" data-vars-headline="Science Corp. founder: Industry needs $100M revenue player" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://time.com/7330887/brain-computer-chips-future-of-medicine/" target="_blank">80% of patients</a> marked improvements in their vision in a recent clinical trial.

Science Corp. founder: Industry needs $100M revenue player

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