Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.
Dyno Therapeutics, a US-based gene therapy platform developer spun out of Harvard Medical School, emerged from stealth yesterday with $9m in seed financing co-led by Polaris Partners and CRV to commercialise treatments for several disease populations. Dyno Therapeutics has built an artificial intelligence-driven drug design platform for identifying viral vectors for gene therapies to gain access to the body, targeting ophthalmic, muscle, central nervous system and liver diseases. Founded in 2018, Dyno hopes to sustain operations with fees from its collaboration agreements and does not anticipate raising further equity funding. Alan Crane, entrepreneur partner at Polaris and a co-founder at Dyno, and Dylan Morris, general partner at CRV, have both joined the board of directors, with Crane appointed executive chairman.
Entropica Labs, a Singapore-based quantum computing software architecture developer based on National University of Singapore (NUS) technology, has secured $1.8m of seed funding led by deep tech-focused venture firm Elev8, DealStreetAsia reported yesterday. Government-owned investment firm SGInnovate participated alongside IT network services provider TIS, family office Lim Teck Lee Group, V1 Capital and Entrepreneur First. The fresh capital will go to building Entropica’s technical team and refining its quantum software framework with the aim of making the technology accessible for applications such as optimisation problems and statistical learning. Tommaso Demarie and Ewan Munro, both alumni of NUS’s Centre for Quantum Technologies, were among Entropica’s founding team, which joined Entrepreneur First’s accelerator in mid-2018.
Spiber, a Japan-based synthetic silk products developer spun out of Keio University, has secured an undisclosed amount from textile trader Toyoshima & Co as part of a joint research agreement on spun yarn and textile development. Spiber previously revealed more than $260m in total funding, including $44m in a round led by public-private partnership Cool Japan Fund in 2018. Its earlier investors include Keio University, insurance provider Dai-ichi Life, sportswear manufacturer Goldwin and venture firm Jafco Ventures.
Lily MedTech, a Japan-based startup spun out of Tokyo University that develops a breast cancer testing device, has raised an undisclosed amount of series C round from pharmaceuticals distributor Alfresa Corporation, which followed its ¥930m ($8.6m) series B round in September 2019 also backed by Alfresa, along with Aflac Ventures, the investment arm of medical insurance provider Aflac, and Mitsubishi Research Institute, a think tank formed by diversified conglomerate Mitsubishi Group. Lily MedTech obtained $3.3m in a series A round in 2018 from healthcare provider Capital Medica’s corporate venturing unit Capital Medica Ventures, leasing services provider Fuyo General Leasing and financial services firm Mitsubishi UFJ Financial’s investment arm Mitsubishi UFJ Capital as well as Beyond Next Ventures and Japan Research and Development Agency.
– Additional reporting by Liwen-Edison Fu
