Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.
Japan-based intellectual property (IP) evaluation platform AI Samurai has collected ¥470m ($4.4m) in a series B-plus round backed by Osaka University Venture Capital (OUVC), the institution’s investment arm. Regional bank Nanto Bank also supplied funding, as did IP services providers NGB Corporation and Hatsumei-Tsushin. Yokohama Capital, SMBC Venture Capital and Kiraboshi Capital – respective corporate venturing subsidiaries of financial services firms Yokohama Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Tokyo Kiraboshi Financial – also contributed together with Sansei Capital, part of insurer Taiju Life Insurance, Elite Network and Venture Labo Investment. AI Samurai offers a web-based platform that employs artificial intelligence to conduct patent searches and scrutinise the patentability of a given concept. OUVC led the company’s $3.7m series B round at an undisclosed date with participation from seven other unnamed venture capital and corporate investors, following AI Samurai’s $1.2m series A round with unnamed backers in March 2017.
US-based caregiver training and recruitment services provider NextStep Interactive yesterday procured $3m in a round featuring SEI Ventures, the investment subsidiary of for-profit university operator Strategic Education. Jazz Venture Partners, LearnStart, Springrock Ventures, City Light Capital and Frontier Angels also supplied funding, together with three managing directors at company builder Pioneer Square Labs, of which NextStep is an offshoot. Founded in 2017, NextStep Interactive offers caregiver training to workers looking to switch career after being displaced by new technologies, while also supplying caregiver agencies with screening tools to pick the candidates most likely to benefit from sponsored retraining. The company previously raised $3.2m in a 2018 round led by Jazz Venture Partners that also reportedly featured Pioneer Square Labs, LearnStart and Springrock Ventures, though a regulatory filing said it raised $3.4m.
Surgical Design Studios (SDS), a New Zealand-based bowel surgery device manufacturer exploiting University of Auckland research, has closed a NZ$4.3m ($2.8m) angel round featuring the university’s commercialisation arm, Auckland UniServices. Icehouse Ventures Tuhua II led the round, which also included state-owned New Zealand Venture Investment Fund and investment firm K1W1. SDS has devised a group of medical devices that reduce rehabilitation time following bowel surgery while also limiting the chances of infection and dehydration. The capital will help it launch the devices in New Zealand later in 2019 and then abroad once it receives regulatory clearances.
