Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.
Forage, a US-based remote work experience program creator, has obtained $9.3m of series A funding from investors including Arizona State University (ASU), TechCrunch reported on Thursday. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and also included FundersClub and Y Combinator. Forage, previously known as InsideSherpa, will put the funding into growing headcount across engineering, product and sales. Founded in 2017, Forage works alongside large companies to deliver digital work experience programs for students nearing the end of the degrees as they look to kickstart their career. Forage is headquartered in San Francisco but also employs Australia-based developers and analysts. Transition Level Investments led a A$2.5m ($1.7m) round in October 2019 that included ASU and FundersClub, according to the Australian Financial Review. Forage’s other backers include Navitas Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of education provider Navitas, as well as Y Combinator and H2 Ventures.
ImmunoGenesis, a US-based cancer therapy spinout of University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, has raised $8m of seed funding from investors including Juno Capital. Founded in 2019, ImmunoGenesis is working on drugs to treat cancer tumours with fewer vulnerabilities to immune system mechanisms such as T-cells. The company has completed initial clinical trials and expects to begin a phase 2 study before the end of this year. Michael Curran, an associate professor in Anderson Center’s Department of Immunology, founded the company to leverage potential advances in immuno-oncology.
University College Cork (UCC) and research hub Irish Photonic Integration Centre have partnered to spin out Ireland-based biophotonics instrument manufacturer BioPixS, SiliconRepublic reported on Saturday. BioPixS will supply photonics-powered equipment to reduce lead-times and expenditures associated with developing biomedical devices. The company is the 35th to have spun out of UCC since 2007.
