Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.
UK-based lung diagnostics and treatment software developer Optellum yesterday obtained £3.3m ($4.1m) in a seed round backed by University of Oxford St John’s College. The round was led by venture capital firm IQ Capital and also included a $1.2m commitment from Luminous Ventures as well as participation by the family office of Sir Martin and Lady Audrey Wood, co-founders of magnetic resonance imaging spinout Oxford Instruments. Founded in 2015 by members of Oxford’s computer vision lab, Optellum is working on artificial intelligence-driven software that can be applied to CT scans to help diagnose, treat and cure early-stage lung cancers. It is hoped the software will also minimise false positives and costs which result from the treatment of harmless lesions.
US-based commercial construction materials marketplace Krowdsourced has received an undisclosed amount of seed funding from investors co-led by Rogue Venture Partners, the VC fund backed by Oregon State University, and Oregon Venture Fund. Founded in September 2017, Krowdsourced offers supplies from its manufacturing affiliates through an online portal catering to clients from the construction industry. The company was originally restricted to the local market in Oregon but has recently expanded into five more US states, including Alaska, Colorado and Idaho.
Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (UniBZ) has unveiled its first-ever official spinout, Italy-based data integration service provider Ontopic, Unsertirol24.com has reported. Ontopic offers software tools that help businesses and public administration boards integrate information from disparate sources. The company extends research led by Diego Calvanese, a professor in UniBZ’s Faculty of Computer Science. UniBZ will not take any equity in Ontopic, exercising a policy in its tech transfer framework which permits it to “recognise” spinouts without owning a position.
