LIFESCAPES received additional investment from Global Brain. The investment amount was not disclosed, and the transaction was announced on 30 October 2024. The company is expected to expand its upper-limb rehabilitation equipment using BMI/BCI technology.
Global Brain made an additional investment in LIFESCAPES, which develops, manufactures and sells BMI/BCI equipment for stroke rehabilitation, through the Canon Marketing Japan MIRAI Fund. The investment amount and company valuation were not disclosed.
Global Brain said that stroke is one of the causes of people requiring long-term care in Japan, and that many patients with severe upper-limb paralysis have not achieved sufficient recovery through conventional rehabilitation.
LIFESCAPES uses more than a decade of BMI/BCI technology accumulated at the Junichi Ushiba laboratory at Keio University. It provides training equipment that detects neural activity through wearable sensors on the scalp and moves finger orthoses in coordination with the user's intent. The company has two product lines, one for medical institutions and one for functional training.
Some medical products may qualify for an exercise-volume add-on for stroke and spinal cord injuries and are said to be applicable to severe cases with limited voluntary electromyographic activity. Functional-training products, meanwhile, are used for training at nursing-care facilities and other locations.
Global Brain said the effectiveness of upper-limb training using BMI/BCI has been supported by reports presented at multiple academic conferences. It has also disclosed reports from clinical implementation sites and research results from LIFESCAPES' founding period.