Global University Venturing

Staff, students and alumni at London School of Economics are set to benefit from Houghton Street Ventures, which will back seed and series A rounds.

Schunk has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Fraunhofer spinout Pulsar Photonics, which produces ultrashort-pulse laser technology.

EPFL spinout Bestmile is winding down, citing pandemic-related challenges and a failed attempt at getting acquired.

William Tucker, executive director of InnovationAccess at UC Davis, has retired after nearly two decades with University of California.

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology spinout Kites has agreed to an acquisition of undisclosed size by Zoom Video Communications.

MIT spinout Infinite Cooling has raised $12.3m in a series A round led by Material Impact.

The venture firm’s second fund has secured a $20m commitment from the International Finance Corporation, bringing the vehicle to $250m.

Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.

CMU-founded language learning platform developer Duolingo was valued at $2.4bn as of its last funding round in November 2020.

Jon Soderstrom will step down as managing director of Yale University’s tech transfer office tomorrow after 25 years in the job.

The surgical technology developer was valued at $3bn in a series C round backed by returning investor Cambridge Innovation Capital.