Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.
US-based mental health training platform Motivo has received $2.2m in a seed round involving SEI Ventures, the strategic investment arm of for-profit university operator Strategic Education, according to MobiHealthNews. The round was led by media, automotive and telecoms group Cox Enterprises with participation from accelerator Techstars, ECMC, Great Oaks VC, Jump Fund, Emmett Partners, Next Wave Impact Fund and undisclosed angel investors. Founded in 2017, Motivo provides software that lets mental health care providers remotely coach trainee therapists through live video sessions and various administrative tools. The money will go towards recruitment as Motivo targets additional contracts and partnerships with professional therapist boards and schools.
Osaka University Venture Capital’s OUVC1 unit invested ¥150m ($1.4m) on Monday in university spinout Immunosense, which is developing point-of-care blood tests for multiple diseases using immune biosensors. Immunosense was formed in January 2018 to advance research led by Eiichi Minutani, a professor in the Graduate School of Engineering. The capital will aid recruitment and progress toward clinical studies, building on a prototype funded with $565,000 invested by OUVC1 in March 2018.
Bright Angel Therapeutics, a Canada-based antifungal medicine developer formed on Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Toronto research, secured a seed extension of undisclosed size yesterday from VC firm Lumira Ventures and Viva BioInnovator – part of drug discovery outsourcing firm Viva Biotech. The funding follows seed commitments from life sciences-focused investor adMare BioInnovations and Bright Angel’s founding shareholders: multi-institution commercialisation firm Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners and drug discovery firm Schrödinger. Founded in late 2017, the company hopes to tackle invasive fungal infections by inhibiting the chaperone protein Hsp90, which is linked to biological resistance to existing antifungal medications.
