Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.
Reliability Solutions, a Poland-based industrial predictive analytics spinout of AGH University of Science and Technology, has procured €3m ($3.4m) of series A capital from Icos Capital and EEC Magenta, a cleantech-focused VC firm backed by energy holding company Tauron Polska Energia. The spinout offers deep learning-driven products that help industrial clients project maintenance schedules for their facilities, and will use the series A funding to target growth in European markets. Reliability Solutions previously obtained an undisclosed pre-seed sum from VC fund Giza Polish Ventures and the Polish Institute for Research and Development, in a round arranged through Bridge Alfa, a co-investment scheme run by the Polish government-owned National Center for Research and Development.
Israel-based misinformation detection company Cyabra Strategy has obtained $2m in funding from Tau Ventures, the university venture fund of Tel Aviv University, Calcalist reported yesterday. Founded in 2017, Cyabra produces cybersecurity tools to shield companies and brands from damaging fake news campaigns. Cyabra Strategy has now raised $4m to date, after a $1m seed round in June 2018 led by Tau Ventures and backed by unnamed private investors, in which Tau Ventures supplied half of the funding, according to Globes.
Tau Ventures has also reportedly invested $1.5m in US-based secure communications business GlobeKeeper. Founded in 2014, GlobeKeeper provides secure communication protocols that protect civilian-focused devices such as GPS and Bluetooth transmitters in sensitive, mission-critical environments. The company currently has contracts with security and intelligence agencies in Europe, South Africa and the US.
Merand Pharmaceuticals, a US-based microRNA drug developer forged from University of Virginia research, has received an undisclosed sum from investors led by the university’s UVA LVG Seed Fund. UVA-focused angel syndicate CAV Angels also contributed alongside Charlottesville Angel Network and undisclosed additional investors. Merand Pharmaceuticals is working on a microRNA-based drug called Mir-93 for patients with peripheral artery disease, a progressive blood circulation impairment characterised by pain and non-healing ulcers in the legs. Mir-93 was discovered in the lab of co-founder Brian Annex, chief of the university’s cardiovascular medicine unit.
US-based urinary tract infection (UTI) therapy developer Luca Biologics has officially debuted to commercialise research led by Jacques Ravel, a professor in University of Maryland’s School of Medicine. Luca Biologics will use Ravel’s research as the basis for developing new live biotherapeutics for UTI which would supplant existing antibiotics. The program will initially leverage microbes in the vaginal microbiome, and could in future target other gynaecological conditions such as bacterial vaginosis and premature birth. Luca Biologics launched through microbial science-focused accelerator Seed Health, a subsidiary of microbe drug developer Microbiome Therapeutics Innovation Group.
