Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.
Magia Diagnostics, a France-based viral infection testing spinout of University of Grenoble-Alpes in addition to research institutes CNRS, Inserm and Grenoble INP, has secured €1.3m ($1.5m) of equity funding from investors including regional tech transfer office Satt Linksium. The equity was raised alongside $1.9m of debt financing from government-owned investment bank Bpifrance and its partners. Health professional investor syndicates BH Invest and Magia Invest also supplied equity, as did medical device incubator Surgiqual Institute, Magia Diagnostics’ company founders and unnamed new private investors. The funding is slightly less than Magia had anticipated because of investor unease amid Covid-19, prompting the spinout to launch a $458,000 crowdfunding campaign. Magia Diagnostics aims to diagnose HIV and diseases including hepatitis B and hepatitis C using a micro magnetism-based screening technology to avoid the need for off-site lab processing. Satt Linksium supplied $1m in 2018 together with the company’s founding team and both BH Invest and Magia Invest, according to Les Echos Entrepreneurs.
ToffeeAM, a UK-based additive manufacturing software spinout of Imperial College London, today raised £1m ($1.26m) in seed capital led by IQ Capital. Founded in 2019 to advance research conducted at Imperial’s Department of Aeronautics, ToffeeAM develops software to boost the efficiency and components built through 3D printing. The technology is particularly aimed at clients in the aerospace and automotive sectors, helping to design components at a level of intricacy that could not be achieved through manual input alone. The seed round will allow ToffeeAM to grow its headcount, including that of its engineering team, as well as attract additional customers and bolster its engineering capabilities.
Chromocenter, a Japan-based spinout of Tottori University that supports pharmaceutical research and development, has received an undisclosed amount from diversified trading group Itochu Corporation as part of a strategic partnership.
CrowdScan, a Belgium-based crowd density measuring technology developer, formally spun out yesterday to commercialise research from University of Antwerp and research institute Imec. CrowdScan has devised a system that measures the density of crowds through feedback from wireless sensors, security images and mobile phone transmission data. The technology originally targeted large events such as music festivals, but is now pitched to the new reality of social distancing, helping clients evaluate compliance. CrowdScan’s founding team includes Maarten Weyn, a professor at University of Antwerp focused on communication and internet-of-things systems, and Stijn Denis, a researcher in the university’s electronics and information, communications and technology department, with both co-founders also holding appointments at Imec.
– Additional reporting by Thierry Heles and Liwen-Edison Fu
