Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.
Oxford Drug Design, a UK-based bacterial infection medicine developer spun out of University of Oxford, obtained £2.2m ($2.8m) on Tuesday including equity from Angel CoFund, O2H Ventures and undisclosed new investors, as well as grant money from a UK government competition intended to foster UK-China research collaborations. The spinout will deploy the capital for its research and discovery efforts, aimed at combatting anti-microbial resistance in humans and animals by treating infections with new small molecule drugs and traditional Chinese medicines. Oxford Drug Design was established in partnership with University of Portsmouth, Huazhong Agricultural University and drug developer Wuhan HVSEN Biotechnology. It does not appear to have raised equity previously.
Sonavex, a US-based blood clot monitoring device developer spun out of Johns Hopkins University, has attracted $1.8m of equity from undisclosed investors, according to a regulatory filing. The company is working on a smart surgical device called EchoSure that combines ultrasound imagery with automated analytics to track blood clot formation during operations, helping to combat the risk of deep vein thrombosis. The spinout closed its $4.5m series A round in early 2017 with contributions from Fusion Fund, FundRx and unnamed existing backers, having collected $390,000 of equity, notes and debt across two rounds in 2015, according to regulatory filings.
Industry Phycology (I-Phyc), a UK-based wastewater treatment technology developer and member of the SetSquared university incubator partnership, has obtained €813,000 ($900,000) in a round involving University of Bristol Enterprise Fund, a co-investment vehicle managed by fund management unit Parkwalk Advisors, according to EU-Startups. The round also included MEIF Proof of Concept and Early Stage Fund, a regional UK and EU-backed vehicle managed by Mercia Asset Management. Founded in 2012, I-Phyc is advancing technology that relies on interactions between light and algae-derived substances to remove pollutants from sewage and wastewater, resulting in less carbon emissions than conventional approaches.
Minnowtech, a US-based shrimp farming imagery platform developer, has completed a $600,000 seed round backed by University of Maryland’s Momentum Fund and its Center for Environmental Science, as well as aquaculture-focused accelerator Hatch and unnamed strategic and angel investors. Founded in 2018, Minnowtech has devised an imaging software product that helps shrimp farmers identify clusters of shrimp in order to optimise their cultivation and maximise harvests. The funds will go towards product development as Minnowtech looks to achieve certain technical milestones before releasing its software in Southeast Asia.
Qumulex, a US-based video surveillance and access control technology platform developer, received $250,000 of second-stage seed funding on Tuesday from IU Ventures, the innovation support arm of Indiana University, as part of an ongoing round. Founded in 2018, Qumulex is working on a property security product which imports footage from video surveillance cameras into a cloud-hosted software platform to help landlords keep commercial buildings safe from a remote location. Qumulex’s headcount has grown from seven to 15 since its founding and the spinout expects to hit 30 employees by early 2021.
Canada-based Notch Therapeutics made its public debut on Tuesday to commercialise allogenic T-cell production techniques based on research from Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto and University of British Columbia. Notch plans to leverage stem cells of various subtypes to produce gene-edited T-cells on an industrial scale. Although existing T-cells therapies can be used to treat cancer and autoimmune deficiencies, their utility is limited by the need to genetically engineer the patient’s immune cells into T-cells. Notch Therapeutics has been founded with funding from Sunnybrook and University of Toronto, in addition to multi-university commercialisation firm Toronto Innovation Acceleration Partners, nonprofit stem cell research body Centre for the Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine and venture capital firm Lumira Capital.
