STRASBOURG, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BrainTale, a French medtech deciphering white matter to enable better brain care, announces it has gathered € 4.5 million from Capital Grand Est and MACSF, as well as business angels, to accelerate its development in Europe and the United States. With this fundraising, BrainTale aims to provide physicians and pharmaceutical companies with innovative solutions to improve the diagnosis, monitoring and prediction of neurological diseases and disorders, in particular Alzheimer's and Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and traumatic brain injury.
Founded in 2018 and supported from the outset by LallianSe, the life sciences integrator, BrainTale has developed and commercializes an accessible, reliable and clinically validated brain measurement digital platform solution for drug developers and physicians - neurologists, neuroradiologists and intensivists. Today, the company has gathered €4.5 million from Capital Grand Est, MACSF, business angels and healthcare professionals, supplemented by a Deeptech plan from Bpifrance Grand Est. With its first customers in Europe including hospitals (Paris Region Greater Hospitals, Hôpitaux Universitaires de Strasbourg) and biotech (Minoryx), as well as partners in the United States (Massachusetts General Hospital - Harvard), BrainTale aims an accelerating its expansion on both sides of the Atlantic.
White matter, a "new frontier" to explore
Long underestimated in neuroscience, white matter, which represents 60% of the human brain, plays a key role in its proper functioning, development, and aging, whether normal or pathological. The vast majority of brain diseases - such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, adrenoleukodystrophy or the consequences of coma - are linked to primary or secondary alterations in white matter. Of note, a prediction score of recovery in comatose patients derived from white matter measurements enables physicians to significantly improve the daily care of these patients. A medical frontier that had never been explored before.
To explore this new continent of the brain, BrainTale is developing a measurement solution that improves diagnosis, monitoring and prediction with a non-invasive, pain-free, efficient and clinically validated approach. Co-founded by Professors Louis Puybasset (Intensivist, Paris Region Greater Hospitals, Paris), Damien Galanaud (Neuroradiologist, Paris Region Greater Hospitals, Paris), Lionel Velly (Intensivist, Hôpital de la Timone, Marseille Hospitals, Marseille), Didier Cassereau (Research Professor, ESPCI), Vincent Perlbarg (Engineer and PhD in Medical Physics), and LallianSe, the life sciences integrator BrainTale today employs a dozen people who develop these innovative, patented and proprietary solutions, based on international prospective, multicentric clinical development by teams of physicians, notably from the Paris Region Greater Hospitals.
A biomarker platform to measure the brain
BrainTale-care is a software medical device available in SaaS (Software as a Service) mode to any physician or drug development player based on diffusion MRI (magnetic resonance imaging). The modular platform enables the identification of white matter alterations and can provide individualized prediction scores.
The platform aims to actively contribute to the development of new drugs by drug development companies: BrainTale's proprietary biomarkers are developed to correlate with traditional clinical scores and can make a significant distinction between active and placebo arms, improving clinical trials and supporting treatment efficacy demonstration. The potential of BrainTale biomarkers has already been demonstrated in some demyelinating diseases such as adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD).
The availability of BrainTale's solution also enables real life understanding and observation supporting market access and paving the way for the companion biomarker principle in neurosciences.
"After 15 years of academic research and 5 years of investment, the solutions developed by BrainTale are finally available to patients and my colleagues. Responding to the unmet medical need that has been the driving force behind this ambitious project since its inception is one of the major challenges of the coming years, and BrainTale's development is perfectly in line with this dynamic," comments Prof. Louis Puybasset, chairman of the scientific advisory board and co-founder of BrainTale.
"LallianSe's unfailing support and the confidence shown in us by our investors now enable us to move up a gear. Our team will be able to accelerate our innovative developments to make BrainTale biomarkers a reference for the benefit of patients suffering from neurological disorders," adds Vincent Perlbarg, president, scientific director and co-founder of BrainTale.
"This fundraising is a decisive step for BrainTale, and enables us to look forward with ambition to our next development milestones. The commitment of Capital Grand Est and MACSF by our side reinforces our strategy to establish BrainTale's brain measurement as a reference, in particular to enable drug developers to accelerate the development of new therapies in a more agile and efficient way, bringing a new dynamic in neurosciences," explains Julie Rachline, president of LallianSe, and CEO of BrainTale.
"We are delighted to be able to support BrainTale in this acceleration phase alongside MACSF and an experienced and talented management team. BrainTale offers a disruptive product that combines digital health with cutting-edge fundamental research, key ingredients for success," affirms Virginie Miath, investment director at Capital Grand Est.
"We are proud to include BrainTale in our portfolio of e-health start-ups. This investment is perfectly in line with MACSF's strategy of helping to improve the world of healthcare. BrainTale improves the practice of healthcare professionals and the quality of care by improving the prediction of neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. This round of financing will enable BrainTale to enter a new phase in its development," states Sébastien Couvet, head of the MACSF Group's e-health portfolio.
About BrainTale
BrainTale is an innovative medtech company deciphering white matter to enable better brain care with clinically validated prognostic solutions. With non-invasive, sensitive and reliable measurements of white matter microstructure alterations, BrainTale offers a digital biomarkers platform to support clinical decision-making. BrainTale enables the identification of patients at risk, early diagnosis and monitoring of disease progression and the effectiveness of treatments in neurology, in particular for demyelinating diseases, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and neurodegenerative diseases. Based on more than 15 years of research and development, BrainTale's products are developed to meet the medical needs and expectations of healthcare professionals for the benefit of patients.
Since its inception in 2018, the company has implemented a comprehensive quality management system and is now ISO 13485:2016 certified, with a suite of products available on the European market under the European Medical Device Regulation (MDR).
For more information, please visit www.braintale.eu
About LallianSe
Pioneer and initiator of the life sciences integrator concept, LallianSe transforms innovations into economic successes through the co-construction and execution of compelling investment theses. Immersed in care, LallianSe contributes to better health through its hospital-based coworking spaces, dedicated events, Experts and Entrepreneurs in Residence, specifically mobilized for each company and its education journeys. Braintale is LallianSe's flagship contribution.
Contact – www.lallianse.com
About Capital Grand Est
Capital Grand Est is an independent regional private equity company approved by the AMF.
Since 2012, Capital Grand Est's 13-strong team has supported more than 60 companies in the Grand Est and Bourgogne Franche Comté regions. With close to €200 million in assets under management, spread across 5 investment vehicles, Capital Grand Est structures capital operations with different types of companies in the region, to accelerate their success. It offers young, innovative start-ups capital support at the seed stage. For more mature companies, we structure development capital operations to accelerate their growth, or transfer capital operations to support their capital evolution.
Visit: www.capitalgrandest.eu
Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/capitalgrandest
About MACSF group
As the leading insurer of healthcare professionals, MACSF (Mutuelle d'assurance du corps de santé français) has been serving all healthcare professionals in France for over a century. It employs 1,600 people and generates sales of around 2 billion euros. True to its vocation as a professional mutual insurance company, MACSF insures the private and professional risks of over a million members and customers.
To find out more: macsf.fr
