The fourth issue of Representations, a limited series exploring neurotech's evolving business frontier, produced in partnership with PL Neuro.
With 2026 year-to-date BCI investment past $700M, this issue turns to the capital that markets and federal grants alone won't supply: impact investing. It examines the coming wave of AI-era philanthropy — Nan Ransohoff's call for a "Silicon Valley for public goods" and Tom Kalil's framework for agenda-setting — and asks what neurotech moonshots it could fund, from 21st-century science enterprises to public-health infrastructure and strategic disability bets.
At its core is the focused research organization (FRO) model: how E11 Bio and Forest Neurotech are de-risking connectomics and whole-brain imaging on ambitious timelines, how Forest seeded Merge Labs, and why the White House's "Science: A New Golden Age" points to FROs for brain mapping. It also covers Moritz Helmstaedter's roadmap to a complete human connectome and the Juan Benet Podcast episode with ARIA's Jacques Carolan.
Representations is written by Naveen Rao of Neurotech Futures, in partnership with PL Neuro.
Read the full issue: on Neurotech Futures