Company profileCore BCI
StairMed阶梯医疗
An implanted intracortical BCI built on ultra-flexible electrodes, now in four registered clinical studies in China.
- Location
- Shanghai, China
- Founded
- 2021
- Class
- Core BCI
- Also known as
- Jieti Yiliao · Shanghai StairMed Technology Co., Ltd. · Stairmed Technology · Shanghai StairMed · Jieti Medical · Staircase Medical
- Funding stage
- Series B
- Sources last checked
- 5 Oct 2026
What they are building
Shanghai company developing a coin-sized, skull-mounted implant with ultra-flexible electrode filaments, placed through a small opening in the skull.
- Interface category
- Intracortical arrays
- Signal
- Action potentials and local field potentials
- Invasiveness
- Invasive
- Recording / stimulation
- Recording
- Device
- StairMed implant — Skull-mounted implant 26 mm across and under 6 mm thick, with ultra-flexible electrode filaments
- Regulatory status
- Investigational; one participant reported in a prospective trial in China
- Main use cases
- Control, Communicate
- Works with
- Huashan Hospital, Fudan University · CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology
Where they are clinically
Clinical study
A larger structured study of safety and performance, short of a pivotal trial.
Four studies are registered on ClinicalTrials.gov. The largest, a 34-participant efficacy and safety study in spinal cord injury, has been recruiting since April 2026. What has been reported about performance comes from the developers and the first participants; no clinical result is peer reviewed yet.
Access today
Clinical study
Accessible only by enrolling in a registered clinical study.
- Shown in people
- One participant, reported by the developers in 2025 to play chess and racing games by neural control. Nothing is peer reviewed.
- Still an aim
- Market entry in 2028, which is the developers' stated hope, and Mandarin speech, for which the WISE study opened in September 2026.
- What stands in the way
- Verification: channel counts, stability over months and results from the 34-participant study.
On record here: 2 registered studies · 38 participants planned or enrolled · 0 peer-reviewed papers
This technology remains experimental and is not an established treatment. Access is limited to registered clinical studies.
Why this company matters
StairMed's first implantation, in March 2025, was presented by the Chinese Academy of Sciences as China's first prospective clinical trial of an invasive BCI. Since then the company has registered four studies, one of them with 34 participants, which is the size of the trial that took Neuracle's NEO to registration. Its bet is mechanical: electrodes soft enough to move with the brain should hold the same neurons for longer than stiff arrays. What is public about performance still comes from the developers. Channel counts, signal stability over months and peer-reviewed results are the evidence to watch, and the stated 2028 target is an aim, not a regulatory timeline.
Key milestones
1 Sep 2026
WISE, a study of a Mandarin speech neuroprosthesis in four participants, begins recruiting.
28 Apr 2026
A multi-centre efficacy and safety study in spinal cord injury begins recruiting at Huashan Hospital; 34 participants planned.
Mar 2026
Strategic financing of RMB 500 million reported by Chinese financial press.
16 Jun 2025
The research team reports that the participant plays chess and racing games by neural control, and says it hopes for market entry after regulatory approval in 2028.
Mar 2025
First implantation in a prospective clinical trial, at Huashan Hospital in Shanghai with the CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology. The participant lost all four limbs in an accident.
10 Feb 2025
Series B of RMB 350 million reported, led by Qiming Venture Partners, OrbiMed, Lilly Asia Ventures and an unnamed industry investor.
Clinical programmes
- WISE
Small study of a wireless implanted speech neuroprosthesis for Mandarin Chinese, a tonal language that poses a different decoding problem from English.
FeasibilityRecruiting
4 estimatedNCT07647315
- Efficacy and safety of an implantable wireless brain-machine interface system in patients with spinal cord injury
Prospective, open-label, multi-centre, single-arm study of brain-control performance and safety after implantation. 34 participants are planned, against the handful in most registered feasibility studies of intracortical BCIs.
Clinical studyRecruiting
34 estimatedNCT07603752
Funding history
- Mar 2026$69MStrategic financingReported as RMB 500 million. Converted by the Briefing at about 7.2 yuan to the dollar; the source gives no dollar figure.Reported by Chinese financial press without naming the investors.
- 10 Feb 2025$48MSeries B · led by Qiming Venture Partners, OrbiMed, Lilly Asia VenturesAnnounced as RMB 350 million. Converted by the Briefing at about 7.3 yuan to the dollar, the rate in February 2025; the source gives no dollar figure.An unnamed industry investor also co-led.
Investors namedQiming Venture Partners · OrbiMed · Lilly Asia Ventures · Yuanlai Capital (源来资本)
Rounds in the Briefing’s sample only; not a complete funding history.
Leadership
Zhao Zhengtuo (赵郑拓)
Founder
As publicly stated by the organisation. Not a complete list.
IP and patents
Filings spread across 6 of the 11 layers, most often interface and electrodes (40 of 46 families) and surgical access (25).
- 46
- patent families identified and counted as BCI
- 2022
- earliest first filing among them
- 46
- first filed since 2021; the latest years are incomplete
- 13 of 46
- include a granted member, of those whose family record was read
Across the stack: families by layer
Themes, by number of families: electrodes and arrays (40), insertion tools and robots (21), implant electronics (21), stimulation (14), packaging and hermeticity (11), signal acquisition (8). A family can carry several.
Published in: China (45), United States (10), counted over the 46 families whose full record was read.
Representative families
- Interventional device for tubular bodyfirst filed 2023 · Endovascular access, Electrodes and arrays, StimulationGranted · CN
- Method for guiding flexible electrode and system for implanting flexible electrodefirst filed 2022 · Insertion tools and robots, Electrodes and arrays, Packaging and hermeticityGranted · CN, US
- System for implanting wire electrode and method for operating samefirst filed 2022 · Insertion tools and robots, Surgical planning and procedure, Electrodes and arraysGranted · CN
- Machine vision based electrode implantation method and systemfirst filed 2022 · Insertion tools and robots, Electrodes and arraysGranted · CN
- System for assisting in implanting electrode wire and method for guiding electrode wirefirst filed 2022 · Insertion tools and robots, Surgical planning and procedure, Electrodes and arraysGranted · CN, US
- Interventional apparatus for implanting electrode into brain by blood vessel, and medical devicefirst filed 2022 · Insertion tools and robots, Electrodes and arrays, Wireless telemetryGranted · CN
40 more families counted
- Microelectrode driver and implantation systemfirst filed 2026 · Insertion tools and robots, Electrodes and arrays, Implant electronicsApplication
- Implant device and implant systemfirst filed 2026 · Insertion tools and robots, Electrodes and arrays, Implant electronicsApplication
- 植入装置和植入系统first filed 2026 · Electrodes and arraysApplication
- Digital electroencephalographfirst filed 2025 · Signal processing, Neural decodingApplication
- Implantable device and forming method thereof, neural signal collector and neural stimulatorfirst filed 2023 · Implant electronics, Packaging and hermeticity, StimulationApplication
- Implant and forming method thereof, neural signal collector and neural stimulatorfirst filed 2023 · Electrodes and arrays, Packaging and hermeticity, StimulationApplication
- Implantable device and forming method therefor, neural signal acquisitor, and neural stimulatorfirst filed 2023 · Implant electronics, Packaging and hermeticity, StimulationApplication
- Auxiliary device for transvascular implantation of flexible electrodefirst filed 2023 · Insertion tools and robots, Endovascular access, Electrodes and arraysApplication
- Electrode implantation devicefirst filed 2023 · Insertion tools and robots, Electrodes and arrays, Signal acquisitionGranted · CN
- Connecting device for implantable devicefirst filed 2023 · Electrodes and arrays, Signal acquisition, Implant electronicsApplication
- Connecting device for implantable devicefirst filed 2023 · Electrodes and arrays, Signal acquisition, Implant electronicsApplication
- Implanting head, implanting device of flexible electrode and implanting systemfirst filed 2023 · Insertion tools and robots, Electrodes and arrays, Implant electronicsGranted · CN
- Implanted device positioning method and device, storage medium and terminal equipmentfirst filed 2023 · Insertion tools and robots, Surgical planning and procedure, Implant electronicsApplication
- Pose determination method and device of operation instrument, readable storage medium and terminalfirst filed 2023 · Surgical planning and procedureApplication
- Auxiliary equipment, flexible electrode implantation system and implantation opportunity determination method and devicefirst filed 2023 · Insertion tools and robots, Surgical planning and procedure, Electrodes and arraysApplication
- Implantable device and manufacturing method thereoffirst filed 2023 · Endovascular access, Electrodes and arrays, Implant electronicsApplication
- Electrode device, forming method thereof and flexible electrode systemfirst filed 2023 · Electrodes and arraysApplication
- Implantation planning method and device, electrode implantation system, storage medium and electronic equipmentfirst filed 2023 · Insertion tools and robots, Surgical planning and procedure, Electrodes and arraysApplication
- Electrode device, manufacturing method thereof and flexible electrode systemfirst filed 2023 · Electrodes and arraysApplication
- Semiconductor device and forming method thereoffirst filed 2023 · Electrodes and arrays, Chips and on-implant computingApplication
- Flexible electrode implantation devicefirst filed 2023 · Insertion tools and robots, Electrodes and arrays, Implant electronicsApplication
- Implanting device and method and device for determining physical characteristic parameters of target film of implanting devicefirst filed 2023 · Insertion tools and robots, Implant electronicsApplication
- Flexible electrode implantation systemfirst filed 2023 · Insertion tools and robots, Electrodes and arrays, Implant electronicsApplication
- Forming method of flexible electrode devicefirst filed 2023 · Electrodes and arraysApplication
- Electrode device and manufacturing method thereoffirst filed 2023 · Electrodes and arraysApplication
- Flexible electrode cavity-penetrating connecting device, connecting method and signal acquisition systemfirst filed 2023 · Electrodes and arrays, Signal acquisition, Packaging and hermeticityApplication
- Flexible electrode cavity-penetrating connecting device and signal acquisition systemfirst filed 2023 · Electrodes and arrays, Signal acquisition, Packaging and hermeticityApplication
- Implantation needle fixing mechanism and implantation robotfirst filed 2023 · Insertion tools and robots, Electrodes and arraysApplication
- Stimulation parameter automatic adjusting device and implantable electrical nerve stimulation systemfirst filed 2023 · Electrodes and arrays, Signal acquisition, StimulationApplication
- Method for forming implantable devicefirst filed 2023 · Electrodes and arrays, Implant electronics, Packaging and hermeticityGranted · CN
- Implantable devicefirst filed 2023 · Electrodes and arrays, Implant electronics, Signal processingGranted · CN
- Electrode implantation site planning method and device, readable storage medium and terminalfirst filed 2023 · Surgical planning and procedure, Electrodes and arraysGranted · CN
- Implantation guiding device, implantation device and equipment of flexible electrode, and binding equipment of implantation needle and flexible electrodefirst filed 2023 · Insertion tools and robots, Electrodes and arrays, Signal acquisitionApplication
- Implantation guiding device, implantation device and equipment of flexible electrode, and binding equipmentfirst filed 2023 · Insertion tools and robots, Electrodes and arrays, Signal acquisitionApplication
- Auxiliary device for assisting flexible electrode implantation and flexible electrode implantation systemfirst filed 2022 · Insertion tools and robots, Electrodes and arrays, Implant electronicsApplication
- Guide apparatus, method for manufacturing same and method for using samefirst filed 2022 · Insertion tools and robots, Electrodes and arrays, StimulationApplication
- Flexible electrode for spinal cord and method for manufacturing samefirst filed 2022 · Electrodes and arrays, Peripheral interfaces, Packaging and hermeticityGranted · CN
- Surface flexible electrode for central nervous system and method for preparing said electrodefirst filed 2022 · Electrodes and arrays, Peripheral interfaces, Packaging and hermeticityApplication
- Flexible electrode for peripheral nerves and manufacturing method thereoffirst filed 2022 · Electrodes and arrays, Peripheral interfaces, Packaging and hermeticityGranted · CN, US
- Flexible electrode for acupuncture and method for manufacturing samefirst filed 2022 · Electrodes and arrays, Peripheral interfaces, Packaging and hermeticityApplication
Families found for StairMed in the EPO’s worldwide database, grouped so that one invention counts once. A filing shows what a company sought to protect. It does not show that the technology was built, is in a product, or works in people, and themes are read from titles, abstracts and classes, not from the claims. How to read this
Competitive context
IntracorticalFeasibility
Neuralink
A fully implanted, wireless intracortical BCI placed by a surgical robot.
ECoGClinical study
NeuroXess
Flexible high-channel-count implants, with early human work on movement and Mandarin speech decoding.
ECoGApproved / cleared
Neuracle
Maker of NEO, a wireless epidural implant and the first implanted BCI to receive a marketing registration anywhere.
IntracorticalFeasibility
Paradromics
A high-data-rate intracortical BCI aimed first at restoring speech.
Latest BCI Briefing coverage
Clinical · 8 Jul 2026
China's BCI pipeline, counted for the first time
Sources
- 01
Company reportedChinese Academy of Sciences16 Jun 2025Checked against source 4 Oct 2026
Published by the academy whose institute ran the trial, so we treat it as the developers' own account. States the implant date, the participant's condition, the device dimensions and the 2028 aim.
- 02
Independent reporting动脉网 (VCBeat)10 Feb 2025Checked against source 4 Oct 2026
Chinese trade press. Gives the amount, the lead investors, the founding date (August 2021) and the founder. The report reads close to a company release, and the investor names are given as in the original.
- 03
Clinical registryClinicalTrials.govChecked against source 5 Oct 2026
Sponsor Shanghai StairMed Technology Co., Ltd. Recruiting; four participants planned; start given as March 2025.
- 04
Who will be the first listed brain-computer interface company? (opens in a new tab)
Independent reporting财联社 (Cailian Press), carried by 21财经14 Jun 2026Checked against source 5 Oct 2026
Chinese financial press, read in machine translation. States that the Shanghai Stock Exchange accepted the STAR Market application of 博睿康技术（上海）股份有限公司 (Neuracle) on 11 June 2026, that the company was founded in November 2011, that BrainCo filed confidentially in Hong Kong in January 2026, and that StairMed completed a strategic financing of RMB 500 million in March 2026. Amounts were not re-checked against the prospectus.
- 05
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT07603752 (opens in a new tab)
Clinical registryClinicalTrials.gov22 May 2026Checked against source 3 Oct 2026
Registry record last updated 2026-05-22.
- 06
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT07647315 (opens in a new tab)
Clinical registryClinicalTrials.gov11 Sep 2026Checked against source 3 Oct 2026
Registry record last updated 2026-09-11.