Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.
Mlink, a China-based internet-of-things semiconductor technology developer backed by Tsinghua University, raised RMB100m ($15m) in a series B-plus round led by Beijing Integrated Circuit Chip Fund yesterday, according to DealStreetAsia. SIG Capital, Yangtze River Industry Fund, Enlight Growth Partners and Sichuan Entrepreneur Fund also took part in the round. The company secured a “similar-sized” series A-plus round in early 2020, according to the same report. DealStreetAsia identified TusStar, the incubator operated by Tsinghua University, as an existing backer. Other early investors reporteedly include Changjiang Securities, ECC Capital, C.Domain, Landstone Capital, Hefei Hi-Tech VC and Prorich Capital.
Protealis, a Belgium-based sustainable plant protein development spinout of VIB and Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO), raised €5.7m ($6.8m) in additional series A funding today from Innovation Industries, Korys Investments, HFT Holding, Thia Ventures and Estari. Protealis secured $7.3m in April 2021, although this was described as seed financing at the time. The April round was led by V-Bio Ventures and included VIB, KU Leuven’s Gemma Frisius Fund, PMV, Estari, Agri Investment Fund and agrichemical company Globachem.
Wobble Genomics, a UK-based developer of RNA sequencing technology spun out of University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute, has obtained £1.2m ($1.7m) in a seed round backed by the university’s venture fund Old College Capital, according to Insider.co.uk. The transaction was led by Eos Advisory, which invested through its EIS Innovation Fund and Eos Syndicate. Wobble Genomics is targeting a $3m close and has seemingly already lined up an unnamed venture capital firm and assorted individuals.
BioSimulytics, an Ireland-based developer of AI-powered software to help design and develop drug molecules, secured €595,000 ($705,000) in seed funding from Enterprise Ireland and assorted angel investors today. BioSimulytics was spun out of University College Dublin’s School of Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering in 2019 and is headquartered at the institution’s innovation hub NovaUCD.