Precision Neuroscience bets a brain-surface film, not threads, wins BCI — FDA first

New York BCI maker developing Layer 7, a hair-thin 1,024-electrode film laid on the brain to record, monitor and stimulate cortical signals — sold first for surgical mapping, aimed at restoring speech and movement for paralyzed people.

Surface films scale safely: add electrodes without touching tissue, so a non-penetrating BCI can clear FDA and reach patients while thread rivals stay investigational.

$102M Series C (Dec 2024, led by General Equity Holdings; B Capital, Duquesne Family Office, Steadview Capital); $155M raised total.

Precision was founded in New York in 2021 by CEO Michael Mager and CSO Benjamin Rapoport, a neurosurgeon-engineer who helped found Neuralink in 2017 and left a year later. Its founding bet inverted the field's slide toward deeper implants: place arrays on the brain's surface, where films can be added without cutting tissue, so resolution can scale.

In April 2024, Mount Sinai surgeons placed four Layer 7 films on one patient — 4,096 electrodes over about 8 cm² — a world record for recording from a human brain, during a benign-tumor surgery where the array mapped motor and sensory boundaries. On 2024-12-16 it closed a $102M Series C led by General Equity Holdings with B Capital, Duquesne Family Office and Steadview Capital, taking total funding to $155M. On 2025-04-16 the FDA gave Layer 7 510(k) clearance — which Precision called the first full regulatory clearance for a wireless BCI — authorizing commercial use with implantation up to 30 days; 37 patients had been implanted by then. By August 2026, nearly 100 participants at 18 US academic centers had used Layer 7 to move cursors, answer video calls and play Mario Kart and Fruit Ninja with thought alone.

Surface placement avoided the FDA's toughest implant-review questions, letting Layer 7 win the first full clearance for a wireless BCI while penetrating rivals stayed in clinical studies.

Surgical brain mapping is a real near-term market, so Precision collects data and revenue from hospitals instead of waiting for a chronic-implant market to exist.

Stacking films — 1,024 electrodes per array, four arrays for the 4,096-electrode record — directly answered the field's 'not enough data' problem.

Rapoport's Neuralink pedigree plus clinical partners at Mount Sinai, Penn, WVU and Beth Israel gave investors and surgeons a credible path.

A less invasive design with a faster regulatory path can beat a flashier one: Precision used FDA-cleared surface films to gather data and revenue while thread rivals stayed in trials.

As of September 2026, Layer 7 is FDA-cleared and marketed for temporary use of up to 30 days during neurosurgery, and nearly 100 participants at 18 US academic medical centers have used the system, including for real-time thought-based control of phones and games. Precision's stated endgame remains a chronic implant that restores speech and movement for people with paralysis, built on what it calls the first removable, upgradeable and scalable BCI architecture.