Mayo Clinic has taken part in Stemonix's $14.4m series B round, which will fund the development of additional drug screening products and services.

The digital content creation software provider has now raised more than $30m altogether, following a series C round featuring existing backer CNF Investments.

Tulane University and LSU Health Sciences Center have selected New Orleans BioInnovation Center to administer life sciences accelerator services.

Sarepta Therapeutics exercised its option to acquire Nationwide Children’s gene therapy spinout Myonexus Therapeutics after paying at least $60m for the right in May 2018.

Stephen Larter has become Calgary’s associate vice-president for research and innovation, adding to his duties as chief scientist of the university’s CDL-Rockies accelerator for energy startups.

Rakuten, General Motors and Alphabet own a combined 26% share of the ride hailing platform, which has filed to go public and which was valued at more than $15bn as of last June.

DataStax last raised funding in 2014 when Comcast Ventures backed its $106m series E round, and now the database technology developer is aiming for a $1bn valuation in its IPO.

The venture capital firm has sourced commitments from investors including Arlon Group and Rabobank for a $100m food and beverage-focused fund known as BFG Fund II.

Irrigation management software provider Hortau, which counts Telesystem as shareholder, has raised $20m in its latest funding round.

Identity verification technology developer Socure has collected $30m in series C funding from investors including Synchrony Financial, though Santander InnoVentures did not return this time.