Cervel Neurotech™ Announces $14.1 Million Financing

FOSTER CITY, CA--(Marketwired - April 22, 2013) - Cervel Neurotech, Inc. a privately held company developing a novel, non-invasive and non-pharmacologic therapy for depression, pain and other conditions, today announced that it has completed a capital raise of $14.1 million. The Company’s existing investors, D. E. Shaw Ventures and Aberdare Ventures, participated in the equity financing. In addition, two new investors joined the equity syndicate and a credit facility with East West Bank completed the financing.

“We are very pleased with this capital raise in that it provides us with significant resources to advance the company,” said Eric Meier, Chief Executive Officer of Cervel Neurotech. “Specifically, this financing enables us to continue to demonstrate the highly differentiated nature of our platform for the treatment of psychiatric and neurologic conditions. Our clinical pilot studies in depression and pain have yielded promising safety and effectiveness data, and this funding will allow us to undertake the larger scale clinical activities required to further validate our novel approach to delivering transcranial magnetic therapy.”

Certain disorders, such as depression, are thought to occur because of suboptimal metabolic activity in a network of regions within the brain. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) involves using alternating magnetic fields to create small electrical currents that stimulate areas in the brain to restore metabolism. Cervel’s proprietary approach uses multiple magnetic fields, generated by coils placed on a patient’s scalp, to selectively stimulate both surface and deeper brain regions.

About Cervel Neurotech, Inc.
Cervel Neurotech, a privately held medical device company based in Foster City, Calif., is pioneering a non-invasive, non-pharmacologic and non-systemic treatment for psychiatric and neurologic illnesses. The magnetic coils are uniquely designed to allow steering of the magnetic fields through multiple, specific brain regions associated with the symptoms of a particular disorder. Cervel’s Steerable TMS™ technology avoids unintended stimulation of areas not associated with the disorder.

About D. E. Shaw Ventures
D. E. Shaw Ventures is the venture capital unit of the D. E. Shaw group, a global investment and technology development firm with more than 1,000 employees and approximately $28 billion in investment capital as of January 1, 2013, and offices in North America, Europe, and Asia. Since our founding in 1988, the firm has earned an international reputation for successful investing based on innovation, careful risk management, and the quality and depth of our staff. We have a significant presence in the world’s capital markets, investing in a wide range of companies and financial instruments in both developed and developing economies.

About Aberdare Ventures, Inc.
Formed in 1999, Aberdare Ventures is a San Francisco-based venture capital firm investing in visionary entrepreneurs and technologies that are transforming healthcare with new biological, engineering, and information technologies. The firm has attracted and partnered with many superior early stage companies such as Ironwood, Pharmion, Clovis Oncology and MC10, repeatedly backing start-up’s that have grown to values exceeding $1 billion. The team of six investment professionals oversees a committed capital base in excess of $400 million in aggregate. For more information please visit: www.aberdare.com.