Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.
Prophecy.io, a US-based low code data engineering platform backed by University of California, Berkeley’s SkyDeck Fund, has raised $6.8m in capital led by SignalFire, with participation from angel investor Ross Mason. Berkeley SkyDeck Fund and SignalFire previously supplied an undisclosed amount of seed financing in August 2019, with Angel.co estimating the round to have been worth $4.7m.
High-Reso, a Japan-based operator of data centres catered for graphical processing unit developers, has received ¥330m ($3.1m) in a series A round featuring Tokyo University of Science Innovation Capital, energy utility Hokuriku Electric Power Company, agricultural product provider Cifra and calendar publisher Jingukan. The total figure includes an unspecified amount of debt financing provided by undisclosed financial institutions. The company said it has now raised $9.4m in overall debt and equity financing.
Hexigone, a UK-based smart corrosion inhibitors developer based on research at Swansea University, has collected £894,000 ($1.2m) in funding from Welsh government-owned Development Bank of Wales, UK government-owned British Business Bank’s Future Fund and Enterprise Investment Scheme, livery company Armourers and Brasiers, Sunnybarn Investments and Hexigone chairman, Owen Sennitt, according to Insider Media. The funding will allow Hexigone to pursue commercial agreements in Asia. Neil MacDougall, who also invested in the round, will joined the board of directors of Hexigone.
ConstellR, a Germany-based land monitoring technology developer spun out of Fraunhofer Society and German Aerospace Center, has received €1m ($1.2m) in pre-seed funding led by Fraunhofer’s tech transfer fund, FTTF, according to TechCrunch. Space technology producer OHB’s investment arm, OHB Venture Capital, Baden-Württemberg’s state bank, L-Bank, and an unnamed additional investor filled out the round.
Jaguar Gene Therapy, a US-based gene therapy developer, has emerged out of stealth with an undisclosed amount of series A financing provided by Deerfield Management. Jaguar launched together with a ciliopathy-focused subsidiary Axovia Therapeutics, which will advance research led by Prof Philip Beales, former head of Genetics and Genomic Medicine at University College London (UCL). Axovia also attracted funding from university venture fund UCL Technology Fund. Deerfield expects to provide access to additional academic research into potential gene therapy candidates to Jaguar in future.
Solgate, an Austria-based biotechnology developer, has secured an undisclosed amount of funding from IST Cube, the venture fund of Institute of Science and Technology (IST) Austria, and private investors. Solgate is commercialising research from IST Austria and Austrian Academy of Sciences’ Research Center for Molecular Medicine, with support from economic development bank AWS. Solgate hopes to develop drugs aimed at solute carrier proteins, a hitherto largely unexploited class of targets that could offer treatments for a range of diseases.
T-Cypher Bio, a UK-based T cell receptor therapeutics developer, has been spun out of University of Oxford spinout Orbit Discovery with an undisclosed amount of capital from the university and led by its venture fund Oxford Sciences Innovation. The round also included RT Ventures, Borealis Ventures and an unnamed private investor. All investors in T-Cypher previously also backed Orbit.
Gatari, a Japan-based augmented and virtual reality technology developer founded by University of Tokyo’s VR student club UT-Virtual founder Shunichi Takeshita, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a series A round from investors including University of Tokyo’s U-Tokyo Entrepreneurship Supporter’s Club Incubation Fund. The round also included Mainichi Future Creation Laboratory, Nagoya TV Ventures and OLM Vetures, respective vehicles for newspaper publisher Mainichi Newspapers, broadcaster Nagoya TV and animation studio Oriental Light and Magic. VC firm W Ventures and private investors Ken Baba, Akira Hamamoto, Naoya Koizumi and Hiro Kunimitsu filled out the round, which brought Gatari’s overall funding to more than $941,000.
Ale, a Japan-based satellite technology developer, has secured an undisclosed amount in an extension to its series A round. Tohoku University Venture Partners II, a fund run by Tohoku University, took part in the close, as did venture capital firm Horizons Ventures and Space Frontier Fund, a vehicle for asset manager Sparx Innovation for Future. The series A fundraising process is ongoing and the company intends to close the round at ¥2.2bn ($20.7m) by April 2022, securing cash from new and existing investors to take its overall funding to roughly $46m. Horizons Ventures led the $11.2m first tranche of the round in September 2019, investing with financial services firm Shinsei Bank subsidiary Shinsei Corporate Investment, Sparx Group, QB Capital and unnamed individuals, increasing its total funding to more than $26m. Ale raised an undisclosed amount of funding in 2017 from Tokyo University of Science Investment Management, a vehicle sponsored by Tokyo University of Science and operated by asset manager Astmax, which followed $6m the year before from unnamed angel investors.
Nyctea Technologies, a Sweden-based developer of platform to capture and release proteins from polymer surfaces using electrochemistry, has been spun out of Chalmers University of Technology. Nyctea’s technology aims to remove bottlenecks during the development process of biological drugs.
– Additional reporting by Liwen-Edison Fu and Robert Lavine
