Two of the world’s biggest technology investors are backing a small San Francisco startup developing an implantable device to treat brain cancer. Peter Thiel’s $24 billion venture capital firm, Founders Fund, has joined OpenAI’s venture capital fund in backing Coherence Neuro, a startup co-founded by Australian electrical engineer Elise Jenkins.
Coherence Neuro’s recent funding round reached $65 million, led by Founders Fund and the OpenAI Startup Fund, marking one of the largest early-stage investments in a brain-computer interface company focused on cancer. Other backers include Lux Capital, 8VC, and the head neurosurgeon at Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain-chip company.
A Device the Size of a Button
Coherence Neuro is building a brain implant called SOMA, a button-sized device designed to listen to the subtle electrical signals produced by cancerous tumours. When it detects signs of cancer growth, the implant can deliver mild electrical pulses intended to slow or stop the tumour from spreading. The technology builds on a growing body of research showing that cancer tissue behaves like an electrically active entity and that interrupting its electrical activity may reduce tumour growth. The first target is glioblastoma, an aggressive and currently terminal form of brain cancer that affects about 300,000 people globally each year. The implant pairs with a removable over-ear wearable and a mobile app that allows patients to track symptoms and share data with their doctors.
The Engineer Who Helped Build It
Elise Jenkins, who serves as Coherence Neuro’s Chief Technology Officer, met her co-founder Ben Woodington while they were both PhD students at Cambridge University. They founded the company in 2022 under its former name, Opto Biosystems. Jenkins, an electrical engineer by training, has been instrumental in developing the company’s lead technology, the CIPHER System, a thin-film cortical probe that can both record brain activity and deliver electrical stimulation with high precision. In June 2026, Jenkins watched as the device was placed on a human brain for the first time during a tumour removal surgery at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in Australia. The implant remained in place for about 30 minutes as an initial safety check. Coherence Neuro is now testing the device’s recording and stimulation capabilities in an additional seven patients.
A Fresh Approach to a Deadly Disease
Brain cancer, especially the aggressive form called glioblastoma, remains one of the hardest cancers to treat. Standard methods such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiation often provide only limited time. Tumours can return quickly, and patients face heavy side effects. Coherence Neuro is trying something different. Its device sits in the skull and uses thin threads that reach into brain tissue. It records the subtle electrical activity linked to tumours and can deliver mild electrical pulses intended to disrupt the cancer’s growth signals.
The idea rests on a simple observation: the body runs on electricity. Cancer cells communicate and grow in part through bioelectric signals. By reading those signals in real time and intervening with carefully targeted stimulation, the company hopes to create a treatment that adapts as the disease changes. Unlike drugs that flood the whole body, this approach aims to work locally and continuously.
Why Big Tech Is Paying Attention
Founders Fund, the venture firm started by billionaire investor Peter Thiel, manages about $24 billion and has a history of backing ambitious technology, including other brain-interface projects. OpenAI’s Startup Fund has mainly supported artificial intelligence companies, yet it sees promise in Coherence’s plan to build a therapy that improves through data. The company has been clear that OpenAI will not receive patient brain or health data under the deal.
This investment sits within a wider trend. Technology firms are increasingly interested in the brain as both a medical frontier and a source of new information. Devices that record neural activity could, in theory, feed better models of disease. For Coherence, the immediate goal is more practical: longer-term implants in people with glioblastoma, followed by careful monitoring of whether the stimulation slows tumour progression.
Why This Matters for African Patients
Brain cancer like glioblastoma and other aggressive brain tumours are difficult to treat everywhere, yet Sub-Saharan Africa face some of the steepest barriers to care. Dedicated neuro-oncology teams are scarce, diagnostic tools are limited, and many patients are diagnosed too late for surgery or radiation to be effective. While reported incidence rates in Sub-Saharan Africa appear lower than in Europe or North America—fewer than two cases per 100,000 people in some estimates—experts warn that weak cancer registries mean the true number of cases is likely underestimated. For families across the continent, a brain cancer diagnosis often means travel to distant hospitals, long waits for treatment, and crushing out-of-pocket costs.
A technology like Coherence Neuro’s is still years away from reaching clinics, let alone hospitals in low-resource settings. But the investment signals a broader shift that could eventually benefit African health systems. Brain-computer interfaces and AI-driven medical devices are moving from laboratories into real clinical trials, attracting the kind of capital that accelerates development and lowers costs over time. Just as mobile phones leapfrogged landlines across Africa, implantable neurotechnologies could one day offer new treatment pathways in regions where traditional cancer care infrastructure remains thin.
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Optimizing Cancer Treatment Using AI Models
Coherence Neuro’s founders are clear that much work remains. The company plans to seek FDA breakthrough device designation and expand its preclinical work to other cancers, including pancreatic cancer. A larger clinical trial is planned in Melbourne, and the founders say they are collecting enormous amounts of data to train AI models that can learn from each patient and optimise treatment over time. OpenAI’s involvement has raised questions about data privacy, but Coherence Neuro’s CEO has stated that the AI giant will not have access to any brain or health data generated by the device.
