Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.
Kither Biotech, an Italy-based drug development spinout of University of Turin focused on pulmonary disease, has obtained €5.6m ($6.3m) in a series A round featuring Invitalia Ventures, Ersel Wealth Management, Club degli Investitori, Ace Venture, Elysia Capital, the Moschini family office and a number of private investors, including individuals from Italian Angels for Growth. The company is working on lung disease drugs led by a preclinical program indicated for cystic fibrosis, which will receive a share of the series A cash to progress to clinical studies in 2020. Kither is also preparing a second candidate targeting respiratory diseases including idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Its founding team includes University of Turin’s Alberto Bardelli and Emilio Hirsch, professors of biology and oncology respectively.
Pure EV, an India-based electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer incubated by Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IIT-H), has obtained an undisclosed sum from individual investor V.C. Nannapaneni. The company aims to bring its monthly EV production capacity to 2,000 units by October 2019 and is also hoping to expand its R&D program. It was founded in 2016 by Nishanth Dongari, associate professor in IIT-H’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
Israel-based EcoPhage was launched yesterday by Bayer Trendlines Ag Innovation Fund to exploit farm disease control research from Weizmann Institute of Science. Bayer Trendlines Ag Innovation Fund is a VC vehicle established by drug and chemicals firm Bayer’s CropScience unit and venture firm Trendlines. EcoPhage plans to deliver environmentally-friendly disease control products for agricultural applications, building on research by Rotem Sorek, a professor in Weizmann’s Department of Molecular Genetics. It is the second company to spawn from the $10m Bayer Trendlines initiative.
