Bezos and Gates Back Synchron in Drive for Brain Implant Breakthrough
The billionaires’ support makes the startup one of the best-funded efforts to enable people to control computers with their minds.
An enlarged view of the Stentrode Endovascular Electrode Array, the electrode-studded device that gets implanted into a patient's brain via the jugular vein.
Source: SynchronLast March, brain-computing interface expert Tom Oxley sat down to dinner with Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos to talk about Oxley’s nascent company, Synchron Inc. That meal in Ojai, Calif., ended with something better than dessert: Bezos told Oxley that he wanted to invest in the business.
Synchron said Thursday it completed a $75 million funding round, part of it from Bezos Expeditions. The financing was led by ARCH Venture Partners, and includes a check from Gates Frontier, the venture investment arm of Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, and others. Existing investors also participated, including Khosla Ventures — whose founder, Vinod Khosla, introduced Oxley to Gates.