New York City–based Precision Neuroscience said in the Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it hoped to raise up to $150 million in this latest round, and that 21 unidentified investors took part.
The equity offering disclosure was filed on Oct. 17 and listed the date of first sale as Oct. 2.
In January 2023, Precision Neuroscience announced its $41 million Series B funding round, led by Forepont Capital Partners.
The device developer has not similarly announced this latest round, and a representative reached today declined to comment, saying no information was immediately available.
Citing a source identified only as “a person familiar with the situation,” Bloomberg said the the round valued the company at around $500 million.
The Series C round brings the device developer’s total funding somewhere near $146 million.
Also last month, Precision Neuroscience reported positive results from a pilot study of its Layer 7 Cortical Interface. The flexible, thin-film implant conforms to the surface of a patient’s brain, with embedded electrodes for high-resolution mapping of brain activity and stimulation.
Precision Neuroscience says the film is one-fifth the thickness of a human hair and was designed for a neurosurgeon to implant or retrieve the device without damaging brain tissue.
The implantation procedure — unlike that of Elon Musk’s Neuralink — does not require a craniotomy. Instead, physicians place the device with a new, minimally invasive “micro-slit” technique using 400-micron-wide incisions in the skull.
Founded by Chief Science Officer Dr. Ben Rapoport — a neurosurgeon and engineer who was among Neuralink’s co-founders — and CEO Michael Mager in 2021, Precision Neuroscience is just one of the device developers in the BCI space, which could be worth $400 billion in the U.S. alone. Another BCI developer with a different minimally invasive approach, Synchron, appears to hold the lead in the race for FDA approval.
In July, Precision Neuroscience expanded its leadership team by hiring Chief Clinical and Commercial Officer Jayme Strauss and Chief Financial Officer Mike Kaswan.
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