Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.

Photon Electro Soul, a Japan-based electron beam generator manufacturer spun out of Nagoya University, raised ¥620m ($5.8m) through long-term and equity financing on Friday, which will be used to further develop its semiconductor inspection equipment. The investors included Japan Post Capital, JMTC Capital, Okasan Capital Partners and OKB Capital, respective subsidiaries of postal service Japan Post, advanced materials producer Japan Material Technologies Corporation, securities firm Okasan Securities and financial services firm Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank. Aigin Fund, a vehicle co-run by banking firm Aichi Bank and VC firm Shizuoka Capital, game developer Ateam, insurance provider Dai-ichi Life Insurance and leasing firm Juroku Lease filled out the round.T he spinout had raised $4.3m in February 2019 from investors included cutting tool manufacturer OSG, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, on behalf of financial services firm Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, VC firm Beyond Next Ventures and angel investor Dai Seda. Tiger & Beyond and Keizu Capital also joined.
OneChain Immunotherapeutics, a Spain-based cancer immunotherapy spinout of Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute and Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), has raised $3.6m in a seed round involving philanthropic research agency Josep Carreras Foundation. The round also includes CDTI-Innvierte, a subsidiary of the Spanish government’s Ministry of Industry, in addition to early-stage venture firm Invivo Capital Partners. OneChain has been formed to develop a chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy for cancer subtypes including acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, a rare blood cancer mainly affecting children that provides limited scope for recovery. The spinout was founded by Pablo Menéndez, a research professor at Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute who also works for ICREA.
Effectual, a Japan-based online customer attraction service provider, has raised a ¥230m ($2.15m) series A round from Tokyo University of Science Innovation Capital and financial services firm Chiba Bank’s Chibagin Capital unit.
Cambridge Raman, a UK-based graphene microscopy technology spinout of University of Cambridge and Politecnico di Milano, has raised £250,000 ($316,000) of seed capital from unnamed, external investors, Proactive Investors reported yesterday. Cambridge Raman is jointly developing graphene-based lasers for medical microscopes alongside its Italy-based subsidiary, Cambridge Raman Imaging. The technology would generate real-time digital images of tissue samples, using Raman spectroscopy to discern diseased tissues such as cancerous tumours. Commercialisation firm Frontier IP owns a 25.8% stake in Cambridge Raman following the seed round.
Rapyuta Robotics, the Japan-based developer of a robotics control platform called Rapyuta.io that spun out of ETH Zurich, has raised an undisclosed sum in a series B2 round featuring BizTech Fund, a vehicle co-run by private equity firm Mercuria Investment Japan and diversified trading group Itochu, according to The Bridge. Rapyuta previously obtained an undisclosed amount in a series B1 round led by Monoful, a logistics service subsidiary of logistics facility manager Global Logistic Properties, in February 2019. Electronic component manufacturer Yaskawa Electric Corporation also took part in the round, which came after $22.5m in earlier funding.
Bond180, a UK-based fixed income market technology spinout of University of Cambridge, has closed a round of undisclosed size featuring the university’s tech transfer office University of Cambridge and unnamed strategic, venture capital and angel investors. Founded in 2019, Bond180 applies technologies such as machine learning to provide market analytics and oversight to financial institutions looking to purchase fixed-income assets such as bonds. Bond180’s first service, a market demand management system, is soon to launch followed by tools for communicating and administrating relations with sell-side parties. VC firm Outlier Ventures and the F10 FinTech Incubator and Accelerator were both identified in Bond180’s press release – though it was unclear if they participated in the latest round – while Cambridge Enterprise participated as an existing investor.
Quantro Therapeutics, an Austria-based drug discovery platform exploiting research from Institute of Molecular Biotechnology (IMBA) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, has secured an undisclosed seed sum from pharmaceutical firm Boehringer Ingelheim’s Venture Fund and drug discovery firm Evotec. Quantro aims to treat diseases such as cancer with drugs that leverage genetic and transcriptomic insights in order to screen potential compounds. The company’s main focus is oncogenic transcription, a potentially potent mechanism for cancer treatment that has so far alluded commercial development. Quantro Therapeutics was co-founded by Stefan Ameres, lead for RNA and epitranscriptome research at IMBA, and Johannes Zuber, a group leader at the Boehringer Ingelheim-funded Research Institute of Molecular Pathology.
One Biosciences, a France-based precision medicine developer, has been spun out of the tech transfer office of research centre Institut Curie and biotech incubator Home Biosciences. The company hopes to exploit cell analysis techniques with single-cell specificity to map the biology of currently intractable diseases. In addition to Institut Curie, One Biosciences extends research from Sorbonne University and national science agency CNRS.