Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.
Erbi Biosystems, a US-based microfluidics instrument technology spinout of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has closed a $2m funding round, according to a regulatory filing. The round was led by angel fund Jaguar Biotech and brought the company’s lifetime funding to $3.8m, it said. It had previously secured $475,000 of equity funding in mid-2018. Founded in 2016, Erbi has devised a miniaturised bioreactor to perform biological analysis of cell culture. The spinout was co-founded by Rajeev Ram, associate director of the Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT’s Materials Research Laboratory. Three units have already been sold to an unnamed customer in the biopharmaceutical industry. The capital will go to strengthening Erbi’s manufacturing, sales and customer support activities as it prepares product lines catered to cell and gene therapy programmes.
Haystack News, a US-based news streaming portal backed by university-allied venture unit Stanford-StartX Fund, has disclosed $2m in funding received from unnamed investors in 2019, TechCrunch reported yesterday. Founded in 2013 as Haystack TV, Haystack News runs an advertising-funded video streaming portal with content from more than 350 newscasters accessed through various smart television and mobile platforms. The platform has an interactive ticker that runs along the bottom of the viewer’s screen with personalised news and weather updates. TechCrunch said Haystack had now raised $6.5m in funding to date. It received $2m in a mid-2018 round led by Vestel Ventures, a corporate venturing vehicle for home and professional appliance maker Vestel, that included Stanford-StartX Fund, Altair Capital and SV Links. The company had already secured $1.7m of seed funding in 2015 from Stanford-StartX Fund, SGH Capital, Inspovation Ventures, DeltaG Ventures and angel investors Larry Braitman and David Anderman. Trade body National Association of Broadcasters is also an investor, as is Zorlu Ventures, part of investment holding company Zorlu Holding, and Uhuru Capital, the fundraising arm of mining services provider Uhuru.