Investors are ready to pour $85 million into a Case-connected company that has engineered a drug-free approach to relieving pain. SPR Therapeutics, founded by its president and CEO Maria Bennett, MS ’98, announced the cash infusion in February.

“This is going to continue to support our commercial expansion in the U.S.,” Bennett told Crain’s Cleveland Business. “It’s really going to help accelerate that growth.”

The Cleveland-based company developed a neuromodulation system to ease pain. A tiny wire is implanted next to the nerve causing pain. The other end of the lead is connected to a small, externally worn pulse generator. Widely tested, the device has shown effectiveness easing chronic pain, especially in shoulders, knees and backs, without opioids or permanent implants.

Bennett, a biomedical engineer, founded the company in 2010, expanding on treatment ideas she pursued as a graduate student at the Case School of Engineering. SPR Therapeutics is now in 40 U.S. markets and has about 250 employees, Bennett told the newspaper. She said the investment will fund expansion to 10 new markets.