Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.
Kasada, an Australia-based cybersecurity technology developer backed by national research institute Csiro’s Main Sequence Ventures, yesterday closed a $7m series A round featuring In-Q-Tel, the strategic investment affiliate of the US intelligence community. Founded in 2015, Kasada develops cybersecurity software to protect online services from automated threats such as denial of service attacks, content scraping and attempts to hijack administrator privileges. Kasada previously closed a $4.6m round in May 2019 co-led by Main Sequence Ventures and Reinventure, a VC fund backed strategically by banking firm Westpac.
Hong Kong-based Cloudbreakr has secured HK$10m ($1.3m) of pre-series A funding from investors led by Hong Kong X Technology Fund, a vehicle linked to University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology faculty, to develop its big data analytics-driven software that lets marketers optimise social media influencer campaigns, Tech In Asia reported yesterday. The company will focus on the platform’s user experience and data analytics library with a view to entering markets such as Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Founded in 2015, Cloudbreakr previously secured cash from internet-focused VC unit Opium Ventures.
Austria-based Innfoliolytix spun out from University of Innsbruck yesterday to develop an analytics-driven quantitative investment platform based on hypotheses from capital markets research. Innfoliolytix was co-founded by private banking firm BTV Vier Länder Bank and will leverage the corporate’s capital markets research alongside University of Innsbruck technology. Innfoliolytix’s co-founders include chief executive Jochen Lawrenz, professor of risk management at the university’s Institute of Banking and Finance, and Matthias Bank, dean of the faculty of business administration.
Warsaw University of Technology (WUT) has provided an in-depth look at its Poland-based spinout RePowder, which is commercialising a metal pulverisation-driven 3D printer intended to facilitate manufacturing at lower cost from recycled materials, according to 3D Printing Media Network. The device crushes metal parts and waste into atomised powders that are then pressed into their new form using an industrial 3D printing technique called direct metal laser sintering. WUT researchers have been granted early-access to the technology to discover new 3D-printable metal alloys. The company was founded in 2016.
