Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.
Mixergy, a UK-based smart water boiler maker leveraging University of Oxford research, has collected £3.6m ($4.7m) from investors including the university’s venture fund Oxford Sciences Innovation and commercialisation firm IP Group. The round was led by Foresight Williams Technology EIS Fund and also featured Centrica Innovations, the corporate venturing arm of energy supplier Centrica. Mixergy is working on a water boiler that combines machine learning, analytics and sensors to optimise hot water usage. The company spun out of University of Oxford’s Energy and Power Group in 2015, later raising funding of undisclosed size from investors including OSI and IP Group at unspecified dates. Centrica Innovations then injected an undisclosed amount of funding in February 2019.
Elasmogen, a UK-based biopharmaceutical spinout of University of Aberdeen, has raised £2m ($2.6m) from venture capital firm Deepbridge Capital to commercialise shark-derived biological therapies for autoimmune-driven inflammatory diseases. Elasmogen’s SoloMer platform leverages shark-derived variable new antigen receptors in order to treat diseases including cancer and arthritis. Deepbridge Capital and the government-owned Scottish Investment Bank took part in a $1.5m round for Elasmogen in March 2017 that also included grant money from UK public innovation agency Innovate UK.
Promiss Diagnostics, a US-based ovarian cancer diagnostics developer, has received $400,000 in seed funding led by Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, the commercialisation arm of University of Wisconsin-Madison, according to Milwaukee Business News. The round, which also featured financial services organisation Northwestern Mutual’s Cream City Venture Capital, will go to developing Promiss’s product, which leverages machine learning and biomarkers to diagnose ovarian cancer in women with a pelvic mass.
Batiprint3D, a France-based spinout, launched from University of Nantes on Friday to deliver social housing developments fabricated with robotic 3D printing technology. Batiprint3D’s first assignment is a nine-residence neighbourhood containing two-story houses built to ecologically-sustainable specifications. Regional tech transfer office Satt Ouest Valorisation helped launch the new business to catalyse months of consultation between socio-economic policymakers, scientists and members of the public.
