Daily deal net: April 8, 2020

Kringle Pharma, a Japan-based developer of therapeutics for intractable neurological diseases spun out of Osaka University, has increased its latest round to $15m after raising a ¥740m ($6.5m) extension led by the institution’s Osaka University Venture Capital, with participation from property group Chishima Real Estate and clinical test drugs supplier Miraca’s corporate venturing arm, as well as Yitu Capital, Resona Capital, an unnamed fund co-run by Nanto Bank and Venture Labo Investment, MSF Capital Partners, HT Capital, OKB Capital and assorted private investors. The spinout had raised an initial $8.5m in February 2020 from backers including existing shareholder Keio Innovation Initative and Tohoku University Venture Partners, respective investment arms of Keio University and Tohoku University, as well as Nippon Zenyaku Kogyo, a supplier of medical products for animals, pharmaceuticals distributor Toho Holdings, Cybernics Excellence Japan, medical web portal M3, consultancy POC Clinical Research, DBJ Capital – a subsidiary of Development Bank of Japan – and one undisclosed company.
Amphista, a UK-based cancer drug developer exploiting University of Dundee research, closed a $7.5m series A round yesterday led by Advent Life Sciences. The deal featured government-owned investment firm Scottish Investment Bank with support from the latter’s Scottish Growth Scheme, drug development accelerator Biomotiv and the EU-owned European Investment Bank. Amphista is progressing cancer treatments that selectively degrade disease-harbouring proteins based on the findings of Alessio Ciulli, professor at University of Dundee’s Division of Biological Chemistry and Drug Discovery. The series A funding will support Amphista’s pre-clinical pipeline as the basis for a future series B round. Scottish Investment Bank backed Amphista as part of a seed round of undisclosed size that had not been revealed until the latest announcement.
University of Cambridge has backed a £4m ($4.9m) seed round for its UK-based flow sensor spinout Flusso together with fund management unit Parkwalk Advisors, 24Haymarket ¹ and Foresight Williams. The round will go to commercialising Flusso’s flow sensor system in industrial sectors. Flusso hopes the design could also be adapted to suit respiratory medical devices in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. Flusso from was co-founded by researchers including Florin Udrea, lead of the High Voltage Microelectronics and Sensors Laboratory at University of Cambridge’s Department of Engineering. Cambridge Enterprise, the university’s tech transfer office, supplied $63,800 to the spinout in June 2017 through its Fast 50 program, before an undisclosed sum from its Parkwalk Advisors-managed co-investment vehicles University of Cambridge Enterprise Funds V and VI in January 2019.
Acompany, a Japan-based data security provider spun out of Nagoya University, has raised several tens of millions of yen (¥10m = $92,000) in seed funding from Epist Ventures, an investment vehicle for industry-academia collaboration platform operator Epist. Acompany will use the funding to strengthen the development of the secure calculation system dubbed Sedi Computation and carry out tests with partner businesses. In addition, Epist Ventures chief executive Takashi Uemura has joined the company as an adviser.
Evolve Dynamics, a UK-based developer of drones for emergency services, defence and law enforcement applications, has raised an undisclosed sum in an inaugural round led by Cass Entrepreneurship Fund, a $12.3m venture fund established by City University of London’s Cass Business School. The round also included non-profit investment company FSE Group and its Enterprise M3 Growth Fund in addition to an undisclosed angel investor. Evolve Dynamics intends to invest in headcount, equipment and office space to support its research plans surrounding existing and future products. The company was founded in 2016 and is affiliated to SetSquared, the multi-university incubation partnership of the universities of Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton and Surrey.
¹ 24Haymarket is an investor in Mawsonia, the publisher of Global University Venturing.
– Additional reporting by Liwen-Edison Fu