Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.
Bonx, a Japan-based online communication tool developer, has closed a ¥310m ($2.9m) series C round backed by Keio Innovation Initiative (KII), a joint venture capital vehicle for Keio University and securities brokerage Nomura Holdings, as well as IT services provider TIS, electronics producer Kaga Electronics, telecoms equipment maker Kanematsu Communications, VC firms Innovation Engine and Hack Ventures, and other investors including private individuals. Office equipment producer Ricoh injected $4m in July 2018 as part of a strategic partnership agreement. KII previously contributed to a $4.2m series A round in February 2018 together with sound technology developer Rion, mobile marketing technology producer Adways, electronic components manufacturer Kaga Electronics, insurer Taiju Life-backed VC vehicle Sansei Capital Investment, financial services firm Mitsubishi UFJ’s Mitsubishi UFJ Capital unit, public-private partnership Innovation Network Corporation of Japan’s IP Bridge subsidiary, incubation and investment firm Edge Labs, as well as assorted private investors. KII had also participated in a $1.8m funding round in 2017 alongside Adways, Rion and unnamed individual investors.
Xampla, a UK-based developer of alternatives to microplastics spun out of University of Cambridge, secured £2m ($2.5m) yesterday in a seed round co-led by university tech transfer office Cambridge Enterprise. The round was co-led by Amadeus Capital Partners and featured Parkwalk Advisors-managed vehicle University of Cambridge Enterprise Fund VI and Sky Ocean Ventures, an impact fund launched by media group Sky. Xampla is working on plant-based proteins that could supplant microplastic for manufacturing home and personal care products. The proteins do not rely on chemical cross-linking, which Xampla says enables them to decompose quickly into the natural environment. Xampa’s approach emerged from research co-led by Tuomas Knowles and Marc Rodriguez Garcia, both faculty members of University of Cambridge’s Department of Chemistry.
Platypus, a Denmark-based staff retainment software developer, has raised about €2.3m ($2.5m) in a round including Preseed Ventures, the venture firm owned by Technical University of Denmark, EU-Startups reported yesterday. The deal also featured social impact fund Mustard Seed Maze, state-owned investment fund Vækstfonden, angel fund Nordic Web Ventures, venture capital firms Inventure and Speedinvest, and multiple angel investors. Founded in February 2019, Platypus has developed a human resources software platform that helps enterprises and organisations modify their processes in response to the wellbeing of their employees. The capital will help execute Platypus’s early-stage growth plans as it looks to achieve customer traction.
Liberaware, a Japan-based developer of an indoors industrial small drone called Ibis, has secured ¥260m ($2.4m) of additional funding from Kyoto University’s investment vehicle Miyako Capital, IT product supplier NEC’s NEC Capital Solutions unit and venture capital firm Drone Fund. Its series B round has now reached $5.2m. The funding will be used to further strengthen the drones’ autonomous flight and artificial intelligence capabilities. The company previously obtained an undisclosed amount from NEC Capital Solutions and Venture Labo Investment in September 2019. Drone Fund and financial services firm Fukuoka Financial Group’s FFG Venture Business Partners fund previously supplied $1.2m in pre-series A funding. Drone Fund, mobile game developer and Aerial Lab Industries, the air mobility and blockchain technology developer also known as ALI Technologies, had already injected an undisclosed sum in February 2018.
University of System of Maryland’s Momentum Fund has injected $250,000 in a round of undisclosed size for US-based energy usage analytics company Datakwip. The round also included $250,000 from University of Maryland, College Park-backed Chesapeake Bay Seed Capital Fund, and an undisclosed sum from GreenGen Ventures, the investment arm of clean technology developer Green Generation. Datakwip provides software for managing energy usage in buildings, particularly large commercial offices. Its platform connects to existing building management and automation hardware as well as internet-of-things infrastructure. The $25m Maryland Momentum Fund launched in 2017 to support the USM ecosystem.
Germany-based Provirex has formally launched to progress HIV gene therapies that leverage Technical University of Dresden, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Heinrich Pette Institute (HPI) – Leibniz Institute for Experimental Virology research. The spinout will develop drugs that employ a technique dubbed gene scissors to strip out Aids pathogen genetic code from HIV-infected cells. Provirex’s drug is set to be evaluated as a potential stem cell treatment in an eight-patient clinical trial. Multi-institute life sciences tech transfer company Ascenion and regional venture and grant fund Innovationsstarter Fonds Hamburg have supplied an unspecified amount of seed capital.
– Additional reporting by Liwen-Edison Fu
