Neurable announced on July 30th a new brain-computer interface based on neuroscience from Ramses Alcaide, Ph.D., interpreting brain activity for reliable and real-time control of software devices through thought alone. Made for virtual and augmented reality, the product was demonstrated at SIGGRAPH, an annual interactive technique and computer graphics exhibition.
The Neurable team is made up of four students from the Zamuel Zell & Robert H. Lurie Institute for Entrepeneurial Studies at the University of Michigan: Florence Noel, MBA ’17, Christine Priori, MBA/MMP ’17, Ashka Davé, MPH/MBA ’17, and Ryan Flinn, MBA ’17.
The company participated in the 2015 TechArb venture accelerator of the Zell Lurie Institute, later becoming a finalist at the 2016 Michigan Business Challenge competition and winning over $300,000 from the Rice Business Plan Competition.
The executive director of the Zell Lurie Institute and manager of the Zell Lurie Founders Fund, Stewart Thornhill, talked about Neurable in a press release, saying that the company, “…represents an amazing example of cross-university collaboration, where business and science came together perfectly to form a very promising venture. It is a great addition to the portfolio, which continues to highlight the depth and breadth of entrepreneurial activity across the university that we work to inspire and enable every day at the Institute.”
Following a seed round in December 2016 that raised $2 million, The Zell Lurie Institute and the Founders Fund jointly announced an investment into Neurable, helping fuel future growth in a product with “tremendous opportunity”, according to the student investor team at the Founders Fund.
