Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.
Ermium Therapeutics, a France-based autoimmune disease therapy developer leveraging Paris Descartes University and CNRS research, closed a €6.3m ($6.9m) series A round yesterday backed by regional tech transfer office Satt Erganeo, biopharmaceutical company Domain Therapeutics, Kurma Partners and Idinvest. Founded in June 2019, Ermium aims to develop immunomodulators targeting the chemokine receptor CXCR4 to treat autoimmune diseases by inhibiting the production of inflammatory cytokines. Satt Erganeo, Kurma Partners and Domain Therapeutics co-founded the spinout together with researcher Jean-Philippe Herbeuval.
Denmark-based payroll management software developer Pento has raised $2.8m in a seed round involving Technical University of Denmark-owned venture firm PreSeed Ventures. The round was led by Point Nine Capital with commitments from Seedcamp, Hustle Fund, Futuristic.vc and angel investors Mattias Ljungman and Christian Jantzen. Founded in 2016, Pento offers a cloud-based platform for payroll management that automatically calculates tax owed on wages and provides employees with access to their payment records. The company has more than 400 customers in Denmark and is now preparing to launch in the UK. Pento had reportedly assembled $700,000 before the seed round having been backed by PreSeed Ventures, Futuristic.vc and Christian Jantzen among others.
NuVision Biotherapies, a UK-based dry eye disease medication developer spun out of University of Nottingham, has obtained £1.4m ($1.7m) in a round backed by the university, Business Desk reported yesterday. Science incubator BioCity also took part together with investment firm Mercia Asset Management, which contributed both directly and through its MEIF Proof of Concept & Early Stage Fund – part of the UK government-backed Midlands Engine Investment Fund. Founded in 2015, NuVision is working on regenerative medicines that can be applied to the ocular surface to heal ophthalmic wounds resulting from conditions such as dry eye disease. The capital will help fund further research and development and recruit six new members to the spinout’s sales and marketing team. Mercia injected $590,000 in seed capital in July 2015 before joining University of Nottingham and unnamed angel investors for a $700,000 round in February 2018.
US-based Yuva Biosciences has spun out from University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) to advance anti-hair loss and skincare aging products. The company intends to leverage mitochondria linked to reversing skin aging and hair loss to create drugs in addition to cosmetics with medicinal properties, with the aim of completing its first topical products within four years. Keshav Singh, professor of genetics at UAB’s School of Medicine, acts as chief scientific adviser for the spinout, which is currently preparing to move into lab space at UAB-affiliated incubator Innovation Depot and hire additional employees.
University of California, Los Angeles has launched US-based Theseus AI to deliver software for interpreting spinal MRI scans. The software deploys machine learning algorithms to objectively measure narrowing spaces within the spine – a condition termed spinal stenosis – on MRI images, before contrasting the result with measurements for patients of the same gender, age or height. Theseus AI had already received funding from UCLA’s early-stage commercialisation vehicle, UCLA Innovation Fund, though it is unclear whether the investment constituted equity or debt.
