Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.
Leap, a US-based distributed energy marketplace, has received $8.2m in a series A round backed by University of California-backed venture fund Congruent Ventures. The round was led by Union Square Ventures and also featured National Grid Partners, the corporate venturing arm of energy supplier National Grid, in addition to Powerhouse Ventures, Elemental Excelerator and FJ Labs. Silicon Valley Bank supplied an undisclosed amount of debt financing as part of the round, which will go toward building Leap’s headcount and operations for its cloud-based energy trading marketplace. Leap has now raised $11m altogether, it said.
Iterative Scopes, a US-based gastrointestinal diagnostics developer leveraging Massachusetts Institute of Technology research, has completed a $5.2m seed round led by Wavemaker Partners that featured Tau Ventures, P5HV, private investor Freddie Kerrest and unnamed family offices. The funding is expected to support clinical trials of its computer vision-driven diagnostic tools for colon cancer, starting sometime in 2020. Iterative Scopes has now raised $7m in funding altogether although full details could not be ascertained.
Israel-based Epeius Pharma has debuted to drive collaborative central nervous system research between University of Glasgow and Ramot, the tech tech transfer office of Tel Aviv University. The company hopes to devise biological vehicles for pushing therapeutics across the blood-brain barrier, which typically blocks the delivery of large molecules. It was formed under the helm of biopharmaceutical incubator FuturRx, an Israel government-sponsored partnership backed by Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC and Takeda Ventures, respective corporate venturing arms of drug makers Johnson & Johnson and Takeda Pharmaceuticals, as well as VC firm OrbiMed Israel Partners.
