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Real Investment

Maria Bennett became an entrepreneur to change lives. 

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A couple of years ago, she was VP of Clinical Affairs at NDI Medical, testing a neurostimulation technology to treat chronic pain. When the technology was ready to be spun out, the company’s founder gave Maria the chance to run with it. Armed with experience and vision, she took on the challenge, but needed funding to bring the pain-relieving technology out of the lab and into people’s lives. Maria’s first external capital, a grant from the Innovation Fund, helped her launch a clinical trial on ten patients suffering from chronic shoulder pain. She then approached JumpStart. Maria received a $250,000 investment, but knew it meant more.


“JumpStart’s funding was not just capital—it was validation to raise more.” She leveraged JumpStart’s investment to raise another $1 million, which went to building the SPR Therapeutics team and bringing in more patients for multiple trials. Throughout the trials, Maria has witnessed the difference the therapy could make in the quality of patients’ lives. “I get very emotional hearing how dramatically chronic pain affects people,” Maria says. “They can’t sleep in their own beds. They can’t bathe themselves. They can’t hold their grandchildren.” So far, the results of the trial are promising. Patient pain has been reduced and, in some cases, eliminated. Naturally, Maria is eager to get the technology into the market where it can make a difference for millions of people suffering from chronic pain, but she is touched by the difference her team is making now. “Improving lives is what drives SPR Therapeutics. It’s a great reward to see the impact of our technology.”