Science Corporation Raises $230M

Science Corporation was founded in 2021 by Max Hodak, who previously co-founded and served as president of Elon Musk's Neuralink. Several other former Neuralink employees joined him, and this latest Series C round brings the company's total capital raised to approximately $490 million. The PRIMA BCI system consists of a tiny wireless chip (2mm x 2mm) implanted under the retina and a pair of augmented reality glasses. A camera on the glasses captures images, which are then processed by a pocket computer and sent to the implant via an infrared projector on the glasses. The implant's 378 pixels convert the light into electrical signals, stimulating retinal cells to send visual information to the brain. The technology was originally developed at Stanford University and later acquired by Science Corp. from the French company Pixium Vision in 2024. Unlike therapies that only aim to slow disease progression, PRIMA is designed to directly restore functional vision for those with geographic atrophy (GA) due to age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness. In a European clinical trial involving 38 patients, the results were unprecedented: more than 80% of participants who were functionally blind regained the ability to read letters, numbers, and words. The successful trial results were published in The New England Journal of Medicine. With the new funding, Science Corp. plans to launch the PRIMA implant commercially in Europe later in 2026, pending regulatory approval. The company is also pursuing approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The investment will also fund the expansion of clinical trials to address other inherited retinal diseases. New trials are planned for conditions like Stargardt disease and retinitis pigmentosa, which are leading causes of blindness in young adults.