Shanghai-based Step Medical Technology has announced the completion of a 500 million yuan strategic financing round. The investment was led by Alibaba with participation from SDIC Innovation Capital. Existing shareholders including Tencent, Yuanlai Capital, OrbiMed, Yuanhe Origin, Qiming Venture Partners, Lilly Asia Ventures, Source Code Capital, and Shanghai Guotou Xiandao continued their support.
Step Medical's founder Li Xue stated that the deep involvement of major internet and technology companies represents a milestone. The collaboration aims to jointly develop a new generation of intelligent brain-computer interface systems and build an advanced application ecosystem, which not only supports medical innovation but also strategically positions for next-generation human-computer interaction capabilities.
Founded in 2021, Step Medical has positioned itself as China's equivalent to Elon Musk's Neuralink from its inception. The company has chosen the most challenging technical route of invasive brain-computer interface technology, similar to Neuralink's approach. Currently, Step Medical is the world's second company after Neuralink and China's first invasive BCI company to reach the clinical trial stage. Compared to Neuralink, Step Medical's products feature smaller dimensions and higher flexibility.
Dr. Zhao Zhengtao, founder of Step Medical and researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, explained that for brain-computer interfaces, the technical difficulty increases progressively from non-invasive to semi-invasive and fully invasive approaches, with corresponding increases in application value. The company aimed from the beginning to address the most challenging development problems with the highest application potential.
In March 2025, China's National Healthcare Security Administration issued pricing guidelines that specifically established separate pricing items for brain-computer interface新技术, including fees for invasive BCI implantation, removal, and non-invasive BCI adaptation. This development has clarified the reimbursement pathway for BCI products entering clinical application.
Following this regulatory milestone, Step Medical has accelerated its commercialization and clinical implementation进程. After successfully completing three BCI clinical trials last year, the company has accelerated its clinical progress in 2026. Early this year, using its self-developed surgical robot, Step Medical successfully completed clinical implantation of its planned 256-channel wireless high-throughput invasive BCI system and obtained validation of brain-controlled interaction functionality.
Li Xue revealed that the company plans to initiate large-scale multi-center registration clinical trials by mid-2026, targeting enrollment and implantation surgeries for approximately 40 patients within the year. By the end of 2026, Step Medical's total clinical implantation cases are expected to approach or even surpass the current clinical trial volume of Musk's Neuralink.
Corporate registry information shows that Step Medical, established in August 2021, has completed five financing rounds. Notably, the company has raised over 1.1 billion yuan in cumulative financing within the past year, making it the enterprise where both Alibaba and Tencent have placed their bets in the BCI field.
Following the pricing guidelines issued in March last year, China witnessed an investment surge in brain-computer interface technology, though most investors remain cautious about projects valued over 1 billion yuan or $100 million. For many investors, obtaining the first regulatory approval for BCI technology represents a key competitive target. Step Medical's 256-channel wireless high-throughput invasive BCI system currently stands as China's only invasive BCI product approved for the innovative medical device "green channel" pathway.