Neural Drive says funding hit $1 million

Neural Drive said a follow-on investment from Afore Capital brought its total funding to $1 million, following a $250,000 pre-seed investment in June. The funding disclosure centers on a startup founded by two college-age cofounders and built out of a 2025 medical technology hackathon project.

The startup was originally developed to help paralyzed patients communicate through brainwaves and eye blinks, according to cofounder Raymond Loong Ng in Business Insider. Ng said the company later attracted the attention of a local hospital and was set for a clinical trial there. Business Insider also reported that Neural Drive joined Afore Capital’s Founders in Residence program in San Francisco after the June investment.

What is Neural Drive building?

Neural Drive’s team later pivoted several times before landing on Makeable, according to Ng. He described Makeable as a startup that lets users build a physical product from an idea by describing it in a prompt.

Ng said Makeable can generate the 3D model, electronics and code, then send users a kit they can assemble themselves. In other words, the company is trying to turn a text prompt into a prototype and a buildable hardware package, rather than a software-only output.

Who are the founders and how did they get here?

Ng is 21 and is the cofounder of Makeable, a San Francisco-based startup, according to Business Insider. He said he and his future cofounder began entering competitions together in late 2023 and shifted into hardware because they believed software-only hackathon projects would be harder to differentiate as AI advanced.

After the June funding, Ng said he and his cofounder joined Afore Capital’s two-month Founders-in-Residence program in San Francisco. He said he deferred his enrollment at the National University of Singapore before classes started in August, and that his cofounder also took leave from school.

The pair spent two months in San Francisco and lived in a hacker house in the Tenderloin neighborhood to save on rent, Ng said. After the program, the founders returned to Singapore to apply for O-1 visas, with a plan to come back to San Francisco for the next few years to keep building the company.

What did Afore Capital's follow-on investment change?

Business Insider reported that Afore Capital’s follow-on investment in the final week of the residency program brought Neural Drive’s self-reported total funding to $1 million. Ng said the June pre-seed round was $250,000, and the later follow-on investment completed the company’s current funding total.

The company’s early path ran from a 2025 hackathon to Afore Capital’s residency program and then back to Singapore for visa applications. Ng said the startup’s original device drew hospital interest and was set for a clinical trial, while the team’s current work has shifted to Makeable.

For more on another startup funding announcement, see Klarent raises $8M seed led by Mosaic Ventures.