BrainScope Company, Inc. Announces New Investment and Leadership to Fuel Growth
BrainScope Company, Inc. Announces New Investment and Leadership to Fuel Growth
Revolution LLC, Alafi Capital and ZG Ventures to Provide New Investment Revolution Founder Steve Case Joins BrainScope’s Board of Directors Venture Capitalist Miles Gilburne Named Co-Chairman Health and Technology Executive Michael Singer Named CEO
WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Oct. 29, 2008 — BrainScope Company, Inc., developers of a new generation of non-invasive hand-held devices that are designed to quickly assess a patientʼs brain function and potentially identify dysfunction to help medical professionals prescribe appropriate treatment, today announced several new initiatives to fuel its growth. Revolution LLC, Alafi Capital and ZG Ventures have increased their investment in the company, and BrainScope has named two new appointments to their senior executive team. In addition, the company announced it will be headquartered in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.
With a BrainScope device, medical professionals use this objective tool designed to quickly and accurately assess brain function at the initial point of care. Based on 30 years of clinical data, the BrainScope technology platform, BxTM, integrates the worldʼs largest database of brainwave recordings with cutting-edge developments in Digital Signal Processing (DSP), advanced mathematics, miniaturized hardware, an easy-to-use user interface and disposable headset sensors. Bx technology was developed in collaboration with NYUʼs Brain Research Laboratories, and mathematicians, scientists and engineers at Yale University.
Steve Case, co-founder of AOL and founder of Revolution, has increased his investment in BrainScope and joined its Board of Directors. In addition, Miles Gilburne, the managing partner of ZG Ventures, has been named as BrainScopeʼs Co-Chairman of the Board, along with medical device venture capitalist Phillip Himelstein. With almost 30 years of experience as a venture capitalist, corporate strategist and lawyer spanning the bioinformatics, information technology, media and communications industries, Gilburne understands the opportunity for innovative products at the intersection of information technology and the biosciences, as well as the challenges in developing and bringing those new products to market.
“BrainScope has combined cutting-edge signal processing technology and sophisticated database analysis with state-of-the-art device engineering to create a new generation of tools for rapid, inexpensive and non-invasive capture and analysis of brain function," said Gilburne. “We believe these devices have the potential to do for medical problems affecting the brain what the EKG has done for medical problems affecting the heart. I have no doubt that this technology is going to change many lives for the better."
The company also announced that it has hired as CEO, Michael Singer, who has been involved in the health and technology industry at both start-ups and large corporations for nearly two decades. Most recently, Singer was president of Revolution Health Investments for Revolution LLC. Singer has a proven success record in making start-ups and small companies into profitable and well-respected organizations involved in medical devices, healthcare information and consumer health.
“We are glad Michael has decided to join BrainScope as its new CEO," said Steve Case. “In the last three years, Miles and I have had the opportunity to see Michael at work and we are very impressed by his knowledge of the healthcare industry as well as his leadership and operational capabilities."
“I am delighted to join the BrainScope team, which has developed path-breaking medical technologies created and developed by the founder of the company, Elvir Causevic, that will give clinicians important tools at their fingertips for rapid neuro assessment," said Singer. “BrainScope has invested heavily in the right areas of technology development and clinical efficacy. The next step is to focus on commercialization of these capabilities. I could not be more optimistic about the market receptivity of these next-generation products that we will offer, and I look forward to working with Elvir and the rest of the management team going forward."
In addition to BrainScope, Revolution maintains its broad health portfolio through investments in Waterfront Media, one of the largest online health destinations; RediClinic, a leading convenient are provider; Extend Health, a leading provider of defined contribution programs; and SparkPeople, an online community that empowers users to change their lives for the better.
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About Revolution LLC
Revolution LLC was created by AOL Co-Founder Steve Case to create products and services that empower people and promote consumer-centered change. Today Revolution owns businesses in the healthcare, financial services, resorts, wellness and digital sectors.
About Alafi Capital
Alafi Capital is a private venture capital firm that has been active in healthcare investing for over 25 years. Early and mid-stage investments in the U.S. and Europe are considered, with emphasis on product-oriented biotechnology, life science technologies, imaging and diagnostics, and medical devices. Included among Alafi Capitalʼs past successes are Amgen, Biogen, Molecular Devices, Tanox, Qiagen, Novocor, Oxford Glycosciences, and Applied Biosystems.
About BrainScope
The BrainScope Company, Inc. is a privately held neurotechnology company that is developing a new generation of safe hand-held and mobile devices that are designed to help healthcare professionals quickly and accurately assess brain function.
