Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.
PQShield, a UK-based quantum cryptography technology spinout of University of Oxford, has attracted £5.5m ($6.9m) in seed funding from investors including university venture fund Oxford Science Innovation (OSI), Sifted reported today. The deal was filled out by Kindred Capital, Crane Venture Partners and assorted angels. PQShield is developing cybersecurity techniques aimed at protecting against quantum computers thought capable of breaking conventional cryptographical systems. The spinout has industrial technology and appliance producer Robert Bosch on board as an early client and hopes to make progress at a time when national security experts are scrambling to find quantum-secure networking products. PQShield is helmed by its founding chief executive Ali El Kaafarani, a research fellow at University of Oxford’s Mathematical Institute.
Optimal Dynamics, a US-based logistics management software spinout of Princeton University, has received $4m in a seed round led by early-stage VC firm Fusion Fund that included TenOneTen Ventures, Embark Ventures, FitzGate Ventures and Newark Venture Partners, DCVelocity reported yesterday. Optimal Dynamics has built a software platform for freight trucking services, exploiting artificial intelligence to inform fleet deployment, equipment purchasing and load acceptance. The company’s co-founders include Warren Powell, a professor of operations research and financial engineering involved with Princeton’s computational stochastic optimisation and learning lab.
Skilder, a France-based workforce interpersonal skills assessment spinout of multiple research centres, has obtained €1.7m ($1.9m) of capital from investors including institute CNRS, graduate school ENS Lyon and regional tech transfer office Pulsalys, Tout Lyon has reported. The funding also came from state-owned investment bank Bpifrance, impact investment fund Phitrust, banking group Banque Populaire Auvergne Rhône Alpes, incubator 1Kubator and Skilder co-founders Pierre De Sousa and Yuko Sasa. Founded in 2018 from institutions including University of Lyon, Skilder exploits natural language processing within a software platform intended to help employers gauge their workers’ interpersonal skills and warn of potentially toxic relations or management. The funding will enable Skilder to recruit personnel in specialisms such as artificial intelligence, IT and human sciences as it aims to pave the way for its commercial strategy.
Qblox, a Netherlands-based quantum computing control technology spinout of QUTech, a research partnership backed by TU Delft and research organisation TNO, yesterday raised an undisclosed sum from EU-backed proof-of-concept fund Uniiq. Qblox is working on modular electronics to coordinate the operation of quantum computers with hundreds or thousands of processing bits, each requiring optimal conditions to stably perform calculations. Uniiq’s investment will go to developing, testing and refining its first two products – Pulsar and Cluster – aimed at fuelling both short-term and long-term quantum computing research. Qblox was co-founded by its CEO Niels Bultink, a PhD candidate at TU Delft, QuTech and Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, along with Jules van Oven, a former QuTech electronics development engineer who acts as the spinout’s chief technology officer.
ViboTec, a Switzerland-based virtual advertising banner developer spun out of Fraunhofer Society’s Institute for Intelligent Analysis and Information Systems, has secured an investment of undisclosed size from the Fraunhofer Tech Transfer Fund. ViboTec commercialises technology to digitally insert multiple adverts into the same physical advertising space, making it possible to broadcast events with localised adverts.