Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.
Sarcura, an Austria-based personalised cell therapy manufacturing process developer affiliated to Institute of Science and Technology (IST) Austria, has closed a €2.5m ($3m) seed round featuring IST Cube, the institute’s seed fund. The deal was rounded off by Nina Capital and Axilium Capital, and also included a grant through economic development bank Austria Wirtschaftsservice. Founded in 2019, Sarcura aims to enable industrial-scale production of cell therapies using silicon chip-based technologies. The cash will go to progressing its first product.
Opteran, a UK-based deep artificial intelligence (AI) technology spinout of University of Sheffield, collected £2.1m ($2.8m) of seed funding led by IQ Capital yesterday. The round also includes a government grant through Northern Triangle Initiative, a programme that finances spinouts in the north of England, in addition to further equity contributions from Episode1, Join, Seraphim Capital and angel investors. Opteran previously secured $286,000 of pre-seed funding from Northern Triangle in September 2019. Northern Triangle Initiative operates as a subsidiary of Connecting Capabilities Fund, a £100m ($133m) state scheme aimed at linking up research from the UK’s universities.
Amlo Biosciences, a UK-based skin cancer testing spinout of University of Newcastle, has attracted £1.5m ($2m) of funding from undisclosed investors, BusinessLive reported on Monday. The company has devised a technology to diagnose skin cancer earlier and prevent mistakes that can allow the disease to progress untreated. It will put the funding into clinical studies with a view to launching its product in the UK initially before expanding to the US and Australia in 2021. North East Innovation Fund, an EU-backed regional venturing vehicle managed by Northstar Ventures, backed a $1.2m round for Amlo Biosciences in late 2018.
AWL, a Japan-based edge artificial intelligence-equipped camera software developer spun out of Hokkaido University, has raised an undisclosed sum from moulding equipment producer Kikuchi Seisakusho. The spinout previously collected an undisclosed amount from cold forging technology producer Katagiri in September this year. It had obtained $7.4m in equity and debt financing from Kyodo Tsushin Digital, a subsidiary of news agency Kyodo Tsushin, as well as internet company CyberAgent, printing services provider Toppan, photo processor Asukanet, Mizuho Capital, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and Yoshikazu Azuma in February 2020.
