Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.
Bright.md, a US-based patient triage screening software tool developer backed by Stanford University’s StartX, has completed an $8m series C round co-led by B Capital and Seven Peaks Ventures. The company offers a machine learning-assisted platform called SmartExam that helps healthcare providers review patient data ahead of medical appointments. A free version of its technology is available to screen patients seeking Covid-19 testing. Bright.md has now assembled $20.5m of funding in all having last raised $8m in a series B round in 2017 led by B Capital with participation from Seven Peaks. Stanford-StartX Fund had previously joined Seven Peaks for Bright.md’s $3.5m series A in 2015 led by Oregon Angel Fund.
Interius BioTherapeutics, a US-based cancer therapy spinout of University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), has obtained $1.6m of equity from unnamed private investors, Newsbreak reported yesterday. The company was founded in 2019 by Saar Gill, assistant professor of medicine at UPenn, who also helped launch another spinout from the institution, Carisma Therapeutics, previously.
Karolinska Development, the investment arm of Karolinska Institute, has taken a 5% stake in Sweden-based vaccine developer Svenska Vaccinfabriken Produktion in exchange for an undisclosed sum. Svenska Vaccinfabriken Produktio plans to develop Covid-19 vaccines in addition to its existing pre-clinical programs for viral indications such as hepatitis B and hepatitis D. It expects to bring its pipeline into the clinic in 2021, and Karolinska has an option to boost its stake to 25% within an agreed time period and price range. The news follows confirmation of Karolinska Development’s financial results earlier this week, where it booked $32.4m in profit and largely settled a debt load that at one point equated to nearly 100% of its market value.
