The Global University Venturing Deal Net rounds up the week’s smaller deals and tracks the startups emerging from universities and raising funding.
Offchain Labs, a US-based enterprise blockchain technology spinout from Princeton University, has raised $3.7m in a seed round led by blockchain-focused investment firm Pantera Capital, Forbes reported on Wednesday. CoinWire named angel investor Raphael Ouzan and Jake Seid, managing director of StoneBridge Ventures, as two participants in the round, the proceeds of which will fuel recruitment as Offchain looks to develop a business-orientated blockchain layer called Arbitrum.
CroíValve, an Ireland-based Trinity College Dublin (TCD) spinout developing a device that will treat defects in the tricuspid valve of the heart, has received €3.2m ($3.6m) in a seed round featuring TCD-backed university venture fund Atlantic Bridge University Fund. The round, which included government-owned enterprise support agency Enterprise Ireland, Halo Business Angel Network, Irrus Investments, SOSV and unnamed cardiologists, follows an undisclosed amount of earlier funding for CroíValve, according to the Irish Times.
US-based recruitment onboarding software developer EmployStream has closed a $3.5m series A round featuring Ohio Innovation Fund, the venture capital firm backed by Ohio State University, Ohio University and Kent State University, as well as Rev1 Ventures, Jumpstart’s Next Fund and North Coast Angel Fund. The latter two had co-led EmployStream’s $1m seed round in 2017, participating alongside assorted angel investors.
Meissa Vaccines, a US-based developer of vaccines for viral respiratory infections based on Emory University research, has closed a $3.4m seed round that included unnamed angel investors. The funding will help bring Meissa’s vaccine forward for clinical investigations tackling the respiratory syncytial virus, and it follows a $1m seed investment from the healthcare and life sciences-focused FundRx in March 2017.
Spain-based 3D printer manufacturer BCN3D has spun out of Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) with $3m of seed capital from venture capital firms Accurafy4, JME Venture Capital and Victoria Venture Capital. Building on research from UPC’s Additive Manufacturing Center, BCN3D aims to commercialise a 3D printing system called Independent Dual Extruder that could be twice as productive as competing technologies.
Azadyne, an autoimmune disease therapy spinout of Trinity College Dublin, has received €1.8m ($2m) in a funding round co-led by health-focused VC firm NCL Technology Ventures and unnamed new private investors, according to Silicon Republic. The spinout was founded in 2016 to exploit a biological pathway, the tRNA- guanine transglycosylase enzyme, that has shown promise during preclinical studies.
