Bethesda, Maryland-based BrainScope, which makes mobile, non-invasive devices that help medical professionals assess traumatic brain injury, has raised $16 milion. New investor DBL Partners contributed along with existing investors Revolution LLC, ZG Ventures, and Maryland Venture Fund.
“We are delighted to have closed this financing with such outstanding investors," Michael Singer, CEO of BrainScope, said in a statement. "This investment acknowledges our leadership position as the first and only handheld, objective, FDA-cleared medical device for traumatic brain injury assessment. The financing will not only help the company drive commercial sales within various markets, but will also provide capital for research and development to broaden our product portfolio."
Brainscope has been developing its products, with the help and funding of the US Department of Defense, since 2011. It's first product, Ahead 100, was cleared in November 2014. A second, Ahead 200, which the company says is a smaller, more rugged version of its Ahead 100 offering, was cleared in May 2015.
In January, the company launched the third version of its product, which received FDA clearance in September of last year under the named "Ahead 300". The company's first commercial product, it's currently marketed under the name BrainScope One. The device consists of an EEG headset and a handheld display device, and it can be used by clinicians to conduct four tests to determine if a patient has a traumatic brain injury -- two tests which use the sensors and two cognitive performance tests delivered via the device.
"The Ahead 300 offers a multi-modal, comprehensive capability to address a vast market need for the epidemic of mild head injury in this country,” Singer said back in January. “We know the absence of such a capability in current medical practice is a great concern for clinicians as well as for head injured patients and their loved ones. There is now available, for the first time, an FDA cleared medical device – the Ahead 300 – which can help the clinician objectively and rapidly assess and disposition patients, right at the point of care.”
A study in the Journal of Emergency Medicine in June showed that use of BrainScope One could potentially eliminate one third of unecessary CT scans.
