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

Symmetry Systems, a US-headquartered data security technology developer spun out of University of Texas at Austin’s Spark Lab, raised $15m in series A funding yesterday from investors including consulting firm Accenture’s corporate venture capital unit, Accenture Ventures. The round was co-led by Prefix Capital and ForgePoint Capital and backed by multiple angel investors, and it follows a $3m seed round co-led by ForgePoint Capital and Prefix Capital announced when Symmetry emerged from stealth in August 2020.
Figur8, a US-based wearable musculoskeletal technology developer utilising research from Massachusetts Institute of Technologies (MIT) and Massachusetts General Hospital, received $12m in series A financing yesterday from investors including the MIT-affiliated E14 Fund. VC firm Taiwania Capital led the round, which also featured Phoenix Venture Partners and P5 Health Ventures, the latter of which had led a $7.5m seed round in August 2019 that included E14 Fund.
Rheaply, the US-based developer of an asset management software platform for the circular economy, secured $2.2m yesterday in a bridge round featuring Massachusetts Institute of Technologies’ Solve Innovation Future unit. The round was led by software provider Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund and it followed an $8m series A in February this year led by High Alpha that boosted the company’s overall funding to $10m.
A consortium including private investors Ian Marchant and Johnnie Andringa provided £300,000 ($430,000) in seed capital last month for REOptimize Systems, a UK-based wind turbine technology developer spun out of University of Edinburgh, it disclosed yesterday. The technology was developed at the university, partly by company CEO JP Echenique, and the equity financing followed grant funding from Innovate UK ICure and Scottish Enterprise’s Scottish Smart initiative.

Robert Lavine

Robert Lavine is special features editor for Global Venturing.