Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.
Atrian Medical, an Ireland-based spinout of NUI Galway, has closed a €2.3m ($2.6m) seed round backed by Atlantic Bridge’s spinout-focused investment vehicle University Bridge Fund to commence inaugural clinical trials within the next year on its medical device for treating irregular heartbeats, Silicon Republic reported yesterday. The round was led by statutory social and economic development board Western Development Commission and also included medical research centre Mayo Clinic, state-owned enterprise support agency Enterprise Ireland and unnamed angel investors. The fresh funding will also aid Atrian’s expansion, including a recruitment drive in areas such as engineering and clinical regulatory compliance.
EraCal Therapeutics, a Switzerland-based appetite suppression supplement developer spun out of University of Zurich and Harvard University, has completed an oversubscribed seed round of undisclosed size involving the university’s UZH Life Sciences Fund, which counts drug maker Novartis’s Venture Fund as an investor. VC firm Redalpine, Bernina BioInvest and unnamed private investors also contributed, with the proceeds set to fund preclinical development of EraCal’s lead candidate. The spinout was founded in 2018 and reportedly attracted CHF1m ($1m) from UZH Life Sciences in June 2019, though it is unclear whether this is included in the latest announcement.
Grid Edge, a UK-based Aston University spinout developing artificial intelligence-equipped technologies for optimising energy usage within buildings, has received an undisclosed amount in a series A round led by BP Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of oil producer BP, with participation from family office Goldacre. The funding will help Grid Edge target growth in the UK on the back of its existing alliances with real estate industry partners, and it also plans to explore opportunities elsewhere in Europe. Spun out from Aston University’s Energy Research Institute in 2016, Grid Edge offers a data analytics and machine learning-powered software platform that helps property managers forecast energy consumption in their buildings to limit costs and carbon emissions. Ignite, a corporate venturing unit run by energy supplier Centrica, reportedly supplied £200,000 ($260,000) of seed funding in mid-2017.
University of Bristol spun out a new UK-business, Senmag Robotics, on Sunday to commercialise a haptic feedback-enabled robotic arm development kit based on research led by Anne Roudaut, associate professor in human-computer interaction at Bristol’s Department of Computer Science. Senmag’s Mantis robotic arms would facilitate the development of haptic feedback for applications including virtual reality, allowing the user to sense the feel of objects within simulations. The university claims Mantis is 20 times cheaper to deploy than incumbent market equivalents, owing to its use of brushless motors that are cheap to manufacture. Senmag aims to release the initial iteration of the kits before the end of 2019.
