Istari Oncology, a spinout of Duke University, has obtained approximately $4m in funding, the North Carolina Business News Wire has reported citing a regulatory filing. Istari was established in 2014 and is working on a cure for recurrent glioblastoma, a type of brain cancer. The approach is based on research undertaken by Dani Bolognesi, Henry Friedman and Darell Bigner.
LKSpatialist, a France-based spinout of Université Nice Sophia Antipolis’ Laboratoire Espace, has obtained €600,000 ($510,000) in initial funding from investment firm Soridec and Sofilaro, an investment arm of financial services firm Crédit Agricole. The spinout, established with the support of Satt Sud-Est and a member of incubator LR Incubation, has developed a platform to help evaluate real estate opportunities. The cash will go towards an expansion in France and overseas, with a particular focus on the UK, Morocco and Ivory Coast.
University College Dublin spinout OncoMark, the developer of a panels of cancer biomarkets to enable more personalised treatment decisions, has received €2.1m in funding from Kernel Capital, through the Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Venture Funds, Irrus Investments, Galway HBAN MedTech, private investors and Enterprise Ireland, the state-owned enterprise support agency. The funding will support the commercialisation of the spinout’s lead product, OncoMasTR, slated for release in 2018, that offers a prognostic test for early-stage breast cancer. OncoMark is based on research conducted by William Gallagher and Steve Penney at the School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science.
Desentum, a Finland-based biopharmaceutical company spun out of public research institute VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, has closed a €2m series A round that included government agency VTT Ventures, Cascara Ventures, Acme Investments and Sto-Rahoitus, as well as the founding shareholders. Desentum is working on immunotherapies to treat patients suffering from allergies.
Cebiotex, a Spain-based post-surgery cancer treatment developer spun out of Hospital Sant Joan de Déu and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, has raised €1.8m in funding to finance the regulatory pre-clinical phase of its lead candidate. The money was provided by the Neotec Center Industrial Technological Development program and Enisa, under the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness and the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 program. Fundació Ship2B, Inveready, family offices and two parallel campaigns of equity crowdfunding with Capital Cell also supplied cash.
