INSIDE SYNCHRON: The Aussie brain chip start-up racing ahead of Elon Musk’s Neuralink

Innovation

Four years before Elon Musk launched Neuralink, NICK OPIE and TOM OXLEY launched a start-up in Melbourne attempting to insert electrodes into human brains so people could control computers with their thoughts. It’s been a rough ride, even as their tech has led the world, but last year, a call from the world’s richest man changed everything.

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Elon Musk, the leader of SpaceX, Twitter, Tesla and Neuralink. | Image: Getty

Synchron Key Facts

Founded: Melbourne 2011, by Tom Oxley, Nick Opie and Rahul Sharma 
Headquarters:  Brooklyn, USA 
Capital: US$145 million raised on an estimated valuation of US$1 billion. 
Key Backers: DARPA, Khosla Ventures, ARCH Venture, Bezos Expeditions, Gates Foundation 
Patents: 105
The first company to implant a brain-computer interface in blood vessels. 
The first company to implant a permanent brain-computer interface.

Tom Oxley is telling the story of how his little Melbourne start-up, Synchron, came to be leading the race to have human brains communicate directly with computers without the need for old-fashioned encumbrances like voice boxes or fingers.


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Synchron Key Facts

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