Eindhoven’s ONWARD Medical raises €40.6 million in capital increase to advance spinal cord injury therapies

ONWARD Medical, an Eindhoven-based NeuroTech company developing therapies aimed at restoring movement, function, and independence for people with spinal cord injuries and other movement disabilities, has announced that it raised €40.6 million in gross proceeds through an accelerated bookbuild private placement with institutional investors.

A total of 13,520,254 new ordinary shares were issued at €3.00 per share. This transaction included a €25 million investment from EQT Life Sciences. 

Dave Marver, CEO of ONWARD Medical, said, “We are pleased to complete this successful transaction, which fuels the pursuit of our mission to develop and commercialise breakthrough technologies that restore movement, function, and independence in people with spinal cord injuries and other movement disabilities. 

“The strong support from EQT and other high-quality investors underscores the rapid adoption of the ARC-EX® System and validates our successful transition to a commercial-stage organisation. It also affirms the potential of ARC-IM®, our groundbreaking implantable technology platform that is currently under clinical evaluation in the Empower BP pivotal trial.”

ONWARD Medical was founded in 2015 by neuroscience researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL). The company’s proprietary ARC Therapy is targeted stimulation of the spinal cord designed to restore movement, function, and independence in people living with spinal cord injury. 

ARC Therapy has been awarded 10 Breakthrough Device Designations from the FDA. Its ARC-EX® System is approved for commercial sale in both the US and Europe. ONWARD Medical is also working on an investigational implantable system called ARC-IM®, aimed at addressing unmet needs like blood pressure instability after spinal cord injury. This system can be combined with a brain-computer interface (BCI) and AI to enable thought-driven movement. ARC Therapy can be implemented through either implantable (ARC-IM) or external (ARC-EX) devices. 

According to the company, it plans to use 40% of this capital to fund development initiatives, including but not limited to product development, clinical studies and regulatory activities for the investigational ARC-IM® System to address blood pressure instability in people with spinal cord injury. 

30% of the proceeds will be deployed to expand sales efforts and related operations to support the commercialisation of the ARC-EX® System in the US, Europe and select other geographies. 

It also plans to support and scale quality and administrative activities by utilising 20% of the capital, while the remaining 10% will be used to support working capital, general corporate purposes, and the servicing of existing debt obligations.

The net proceeds from the Private Placement are projected to extend the company’s cash runway into Q1 2028, assuming no drawdown of the debt facility.

Headquartered in the Netherlands, ONWARD Medical has a Science and Engineering Centre in Switzerland and a US office in Boston, Massachusetts. The Company is listed on Euronext Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam (ticker: ONWD), and its US ADRs trade on OTCQX (ticker: ONWRY).

The post Eindhoven’s ONWARD Medical raises €40.6 million in capital increase to advance spinal cord injury therapies appeared first on EU-Startups.