UCLA spinout Neural Analytics increased its total funding to $66m as it prepares for further testing of its robotically-assisted brain health monitoring platform.
Neural Analytics, a US-based brain health tracking technology spinout of University of California, Los Angeles, yesterday attracted approximately $22m in a series C round led by venture capital firm Alpha Edison.
The company has also issued warrants to acquire stock in connection with the round to undisclosed investors. Other participants in the round were not disclosed.
Founded in 2013, Neural Analytics has created a robotically-assisted technology for monitoring brain health called the Lucid Robotic System that administers neurovascular ultrasound to evaluate blood flows in the patient’s brain in real time.
Lucid Robotic System combines the robotic neurovascular ultrasound with what is known as transcranial doppler ultrasound, which quickly assesses the brain’s basal arteries to help measure the patient’s cerebrovascular function.
The technology could help prevent and manage serious neurological conditions such as ischemic stroke, which occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is interrupted. Neural also supplies portable systems for monitoring brain health.
Neural Analytics now aims to further the commercialisation of the Lucid Robotic System, which has been sanctioned as safe by US healthcare regulator Food and Drug Administration and under the EU’s CE certification system.
The spinout is preparing to test an “investigational” model of Lucid Robotic System in a multi-centre clinical study to probe its feasibility in a wide range of patients and neurological pathologies.
The series C round increased Neural Analytics’ overall funding to $66m, the company said, following a $15m series B led by Alpha Edison in January 2018 for which no other participants were disclosed.
Neural Analytics had obtained $10m in a round led by Reimagined Ventures the previous year, after a 2015 series A close also sized at $10m that featured venture fund JSR and Taiyu Capital, an investment subsidiary of clinical development services provider TigerMed.
UCLA Ventures, the community-orientated venture fund founded by UCLA, added Neural Analytics to its portfolio in 2017, though details of its investment were not disclosed.
