PL Capital

We back computing breakthroughs early.

[PL Capital @plcapital]

@lacey_wisdom 🫖

[Lacey @lacey_wisdom]

spilling all the tea on how to craft your perfect pitch 🤫

[Jacques Carolan @JacquesCarolan]

i think there are huge opportunities for neurotech at the intersection of engineered bio and hardware.

e.g. can we combine the ability of certain biological systems (cells/aavs) to cross the bbb, target specific brain regions, evade the immune system with the controllability & precision of engineered electrical systems?

[Protocol Labs @protocollabs]

DBS has been FDA-approved for 25 years and is covered by most insurance. But only ~ 0.1% of Parkinson's patients receive it. Jacques Carolan at @ARIA_research is working to close that gap.

Full conversation with @JacquesCarolan on the @JuanBenet Podcast >>> https://t.co/v18BHbBYpE

[PL Capital @plcapital]

@lacey_wisdom 🤖 https://t.co/XVjaPWN3m6

[Brad Holden @Bholden]

Awesome to see Paris 2.0 from @bageldotcom released today. It proves that image generation can be trained on a geographically distributed, heterogeneous pool of GPUs and outperform monolithic architecture and increasingly can anchor the world models powering physical AI 🥯🥯🗼🗼

[Istanbul Blockchain Week @IstanbulBlockWk]

Crypto fundraising in 2026 looks nothing like it did two years ago.

The rules have shifted.
The capital sources have changed.
And the playbook most founders are still using is out of date.

@vineetbudki (@Sigma_VC ), @benlakoff (@BanklessVC), @itsbrendanma (@arbitrum), and @TobiasTBV (@tbvxyz) break down the new crypto fundraising reality on the #IBW2026 main stage, moderated by Marc Johnson (@plcapital).

📅 June 2, 2026 | Hilton Bomonti Istanbul
🎟️ https://t.co/fJYGN7RjvG

[PL Capital @plcapital]

@DavidVorick Sunshine state showing up! ☀️

[PL Capital @plcapital]

@lacey_wisdom this

[Lacey @lacey_wisdom]

this

[Arkhai @arkhai_io]

Today we're launching Simple Compute Market (SCM).

The market is simple: agents find compute, negotiate, settle, and get access without a human driving every step.

Open-source. Agent-driven. Public good. No token. No fees.

[PL Capital @plcapital]

"How many miracles do you need to have happen to make this thing work?"

@JacquesCarolan runs two neurotech programs at @ARIA_research: one targeting brain circuit disorders with molecular precision, one aiming to deliver high-performance BCI without opening the skull. £119M in government funding.

Episode 3 of the @juanbenet Podcast covers why 20 years of neurotech breakthroughs haven't yet reached patients — and what it will take to change that. 👇

[Juan Benet @juanbenet]

Episode 3 of my new podcast features Dr. Jacques Carolan (@JacquesCarolan), a founding Program Director at ARIA (@ARIA_research), the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency. He directs two neurotech programs aimed at one of the most important opportunity spaces: developing tools and systems to interface, at scale, with the human brain.

One program is built on the idea that brain disorders are circuit problems, and funds tools to target those circuits with molecular precision across the whole brain. The other aims to deliver high-performance neurotech to the brain non-invasively or at most in a 30-minute outpatient procedure.

We dig into the engineering and biology behind both programs, potential scaling unlocks for the field, how ARIA programs drive breakthroughs, Jacques background, the role of media in shaping the future, and much more. I hope you enjoy the conversation!

Other links to this episode and references below.

Chapters
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:22 Why 20 years of neurotech breakthroughs haven't reached patients
00:04:08 The two variables that determine whether any medical technology gets adopted
00:09:17 Brain disorders cost the UK £100B/year and we're barely treating them
00:16:15 Using stem cells and gene therapy to build better brain interfaces
00:21:40 Self-regulating gene therapy that helps the brain quiet its own seizures
00:24:03 The non-technical reasons transformative neurotech fail to reach patients
00:31:34 Watching a 30-second brain ablation stop severe tremors
00:38:11 The case for delivering brain implants and therapies without opening the skull
00:50:56 Why high technical uncertainty makes distributed teams better than vertical integration
01:02:55 Why the UK keeps producing world-class neuroscience but not world-class neurotech companies
01:11:04 What AI-driven hypothesis generation means for breakthroughs per pound
01:20:40 From quantum computing to improv comedy to running £119M government brain programs

[Jacques Carolan @JacquesCarolan]

I had an absolute blast chatting with @juanbenet about the future of neurotech.

For neurotech to reach everyone who needs it, we need treatments that are both more effective and dramatically easier to deliver. That’s the ambition behind the programmes I’m leading at @ARIA_research.

Juan is a super thoughtful host, and this is the deepest conversation I've had about my journey, what it means to lead ambitious R&D, and the future we could unlock if next-generation brain therapies can genuinely scale.

[Juan Benet @juanbenet]

Episode 3 of my new podcast features Dr. Jacques Carolan (@JacquesCarolan), a founding Program Director at ARIA (@ARIA_research), the UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency. He directs two neurotech programs aimed at one of the most important opportunity spaces: developing tools and systems to interface, at scale, with the human brain.

One program is built on the idea that brain disorders are circuit problems, and funds tools to target those circuits with molecular precision across the whole brain. The other aims to deliver high-performance neurotech to the brain non-invasively or at most in a 30-minute outpatient procedure.

We dig into the engineering and biology behind both programs, potential scaling unlocks for the field, how ARIA programs drive breakthroughs, Jacques background, the role of media in shaping the future, and much more. I hope you enjoy the conversation!

Other links to this episode and references below.

Chapters
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:22 Why 20 years of neurotech breakthroughs haven't reached patients
00:04:08 The two variables that determine whether any medical technology gets adopted
00:09:17 Brain disorders cost the UK £100B/year and we're barely treating them
00:16:15 Using stem cells and gene therapy to build better brain interfaces
00:21:40 Self-regulating gene therapy that helps the brain quiet its own seizures
00:24:03 The non-technical reasons transformative neurotech fail to reach patients
00:31:34 Watching a 30-second brain ablation stop severe tremors
00:38:11 The case for delivering brain implants and therapies without opening the skull
00:50:56 Why high technical uncertainty makes distributed teams better than vertical integration
01:02:55 Why the UK keeps producing world-class neuroscience but not world-class neurotech companies
01:11:04 What AI-driven hypothesis generation means for breakthroughs per pound
01:20:40 From quantum computing to improv comedy to running £119M government brain programs

[TBV @tbvxyz]

Fundraising in crypto looks very different in 2026. 👀

But what actually changed in the market and what do founders need to understand now?

Find out at the panel featuring Tobias Bauer (@TobiasTBV) from TBV, Marc Johnson (@plcapital), Ben Lakoff (@BanklessVC), Brendan Ma (@arbitrum), and Vineet Budki (@Sigma_VC) at Istanbul Blockchain Week this June 2.

Get your tickets now: https://t.co/gnndQxRWey
Use code TBV10 for 10% off

[Protocol Labs @protocollabs]

Neurotechnology is at a turning point.

For decades, the focus has been clinical—restoring movement, speech, and mental health. That work is the foundation.

People already spend $500B+ a year trying to control their brain states (relaxation, focus, sleep).

But the bigger opportunity is ahead: bringing precise, safe, and on-demand neurotech to consumers.

PL Neuro just published a roadmap for how to get there:

Start with clinical validation
FDA-approved, high-bandwidth systems + thousands of patients → real safety + capability baseline

Bridge with dual-benefit applications
R&Dthat primarily helps patients, but maps directly to consumer needs (relaxation, focus, sleep, communication)

Unlock early markets
Let early adopters pay out-of-pocket to de-risk high-end consumer use cases. Crucially: Use this revenue to subsidize and expand access for clinical patients

Map the Opportunity Space
Create a shared "Neurotech Gap Map" so founders and funders stop scattering effort and target the most valuable unmet needs

Enable exploration
Build an "Exploration Bridge" letting academic researchers run non-dilutive add-on studies on approved clinical platforms

Standardize safety and workflows
Fast, reversible, low-risk procedures (under 60 mins) are a strict prerequisite for any consumer future

Partner with big tech (safely)
Integrate with AI and platforms people already use—built entirely on responsibly governed, user-controlled neural data

The goal isn’t mass adoption by 2030. It’s a real, functioning consumer neurotech ecosystem with validated platforms, clear use cases, early business models, and shared infrastructure. Moving from treatment to human flourishing. Read the full roadmap:

[PL Capital @plcapital]

@Bholden In @lacey_wisdom we trust. 🤖

[Lacey @lacey_wisdom]

At @plcapital we believe the GPT moment for robotics is closer than many believe, with innovation in the sector rapidly advancing and we see cryptographic and decentralized primitives as central to this narrative 🧵 1/5

[Lacey @lacey_wisdom]

Congrats to our portfolio company @zama on their acquisition of @TokenOps_xyz 🥳

[PL Capital @plcapital]

@ycombinator @archer_money 🎂🎂🎂