NeuroPace to raise $75m on Nasdaq.

NeuroPace, a US-based epilepsy treatment device developer backed by pharmaceutical firm Johnson & Johnson, said it would raise up to $75m in an initial public offering (IPO) on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

Founded in 1997, NeuroPace has $41m in sales for last year from inserting its RNS System in the brains of more than 3,000 people.

Investment banks JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo Securities and SVB Leerink are the joint bookrunners on the IPO. No pricing terms were disclosed.

In September 2020, NeuroPace collected $67m in a funding round led by private equity fund Accelmed Partners.

The round featured an undisclosed strategic investor as well as Revelation Partners, Soleus Capital, KCK Group and Orbimed Advisors. It consisted of $33m in new equity financing and $34m of debt from an earlier round converted into equity.

The company could potentially receive up to $27m in additional funding that is available for a second tranche, but conditions for the extension have not been revealed.

The company had previously raised $254m in funding according to securities filings and press reports, KCK Group and Orbimed Advisors having co-led a $74m funding round in 2017.

NeuroPace secured $18m in funding in 2013 according to a regulatory filing. The round was led by Johnson & Johnson’s investment arm, Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC according to Bioworld, which also identified MedVenture Associates, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Interwest Partners and New Enterprise Associates as backers.

Brad Vale, then head of venture investments at Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, was named as a NeuroPace board member in a 2011 filing for a $49m round, but it is unclear when JJDC first invested in the company. Its shareholders also include Domain Associates, DAG Ventures and Glynn Capital Management.

James Mawson

James Mawson is founder and chief executive of Global Venturing.