Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.
Seldon, a UK-based machine learning optimisation tools developer, picked up £7.1m ($9.4m) in series A financing today co-led by Cambridge Innovation Capital, the venture fund focused on the Cambridge, UK ecosystem, and AlbionVC, with participation from existing investors including Amadeus Capital Partners, Global Brain and unnamed others. Founded in 2014, Seldon will use the series A money to accelerate its R&D activities and drive a commercial expansion as it looks to take its enterprise product Seldon Display to market. Amadeus Capital Partners led a $3.5m seed round for Seldon in January 2019 that also included Global Brain, Techstars and unnamed existing investors. The company lists Rewired, Force Over Mass Capital and Playfair Capital as investors on its website.
Nozzle.ai, a UK-based e-commerce and advertising optimisation platform spun out of University College London (UCL)’s computer science department, has obtained £2m ($2.6m) in funding from the UCL Technology Fund, Parkwalk Advisors and Angel CoFund as well as assorted angel investors. The money has been allocated to a recruitment drive and further product development.
Prodigo Solutions, a US-based integrated supply chain company spun out of University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), has raised $1.6m from UPMC and Alliance Healthcare Partners, the Pittsburgh Business Times reported yesterday citing Prodigo’s executive chairman Joe Mayernik. The cash will go towards product development and hiring more staff, and it comes six years after private equity firm Alliance Healthcare acquired a majority stake in the company.
ELternal, a Japan-based Buddhist temple and Shinto shrine consultancy spun out of Waseda University’s human resources development programme called Waseda-Edge, has secured ¥30m ($289,000) from Waseda University Certified Fund, a vehicle formed between the university and its venture capital arm, Weru Investment. The deal represents Waseda University Certified Fund’s first investment in a Waseda University spinout.
RocketVax, a Switzerland-based developer of a vaccine for covid-19 using DNA synthesis technology, has been established by commercialisation firm Swiss Rockets as a subsidiary following a licensing deal with ETH Zurich spinout Gigabases. RocketVax will collaborate with a consortium of experts from multiple Swiss universities and research institutes to develop a vaccine. Swiss Rockets will provide offices and lab facilities in partnership with University of Basel and the city of Basel, while also providing an undisclosed amount of funding.
– Additional reporting by Liwen-Edison Fu. This article was updated on December 4, 2020 to update ELternal’s funding round with the confirmed size.
