Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.
DearHealth, a US-based patient care management software spinout of University of California, Los Angeles, has obtained $6.8m of series A funding from technology conglomerate Philips’s Health Technology Ventures, life sciences fund Vesalius Biocapital III and Health Innovations, according to MobiHealthNews. Founded in 2013, DearHealth has created an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven software platform that integrates with electronic health record systems to help clinicians draw up appropriate care strategies for their patients. The software initially focused on inflammatory bowel disease but has been adapted for other chronic indications, and there are plans to pilot a version for epilepsy. The series A capital will go to scaling the software for larger healthcare providers and to supporting DearHealth’s growth plans in Europe, which include the opening of a new European headquarters in Amsterdam. Venture capital firm Kairos Ventures supplied an undisclosed sum to the spinout in 2017.
Leuko, a US-based white blood cell count monitor developer spun out of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, yesterday attracted $1.8m in a seed round led by VC fund Good Growth Capital that included Pegasus Tech Ventures, micro VC fund Nina Capital and unnamed angel investors. Founded in 2017, Leuko is working on a non-invasive medical device that can be affixed to the patient’s finger to measure white blood cell count without drawing blood, enabling measurements without clinical supervision. The capital will help fund product development and clinical studies, as Leuko prepares to launch the device with a focus on patients living with suppressed immune function.
Quantitative Insights, a US-based breast cancer diagnostics platform creator spun out of of Chicago, has been acquired by life sciences company builder Paragon Biosciences, which has launched a new offshoot, Qlarity Imaging, with the underlying technology. Paragon’s announcement implied the deal may have been an asset sale, despite Quantitative Insights implying it was an outright acquisition in a short message on its website. Quantitative Insights has created a breast cancer diagnosis platform that exploits machine learning to help radiologists search imaging scans for symptoms of the disease. The platform, dubbed QuantX, is the result of research led by Maryellen Giger, a professor in University of Chicago’s Department of Radiology.
