Cambridge Enterprise has licensed a lead-acid battery paste recycling technology to UK-based AE, which focuses its services on small battery manufacturers and recycling businesses. The technology was developed by R V Kunar at the Materials Science Department and could provide a closed-loop recycling system in a market estimated to be worth $14bn.
Econic Technologies, a spinout of Imperial College London, has obtained £5m ($6.6m) in fresh funding from Imperial Innovations, the investment firm set up by the university, Jetstream Capital and Woodford Investment Management. Imperial Innovations provided half the amount, after previously also supporting a $8.4m series A round in 2014 alongside Jetstream and a seed round in 2012. Econic is working on technology to manufacture polymers from waste carbon dioxide.
Magnetic Insight, a spinout of University of California, Berkeley, has closed an oversubscribed seed round at $3m led by Sand Hill Angels with participation from Stanford University’s StartX program and assorted angel investors. The spinout is working on commercialising a new kind of imaging technology dubbed magnetic particle imaging, which is non-radioactive and provides higher contrast and sensitivity than traditional imaging technologies.
Epibiome, a US-based precision microbiome engineering startup, has secured $400,000 in series B funding from Stanford University as the company entered its StartX accelerator. Epibiome has not provided any equity in exchange for the capital. In February 2016, Viking Global Investors, through the Illumina Accelerator Boost Capital, Matrix Capital Management, Alexandria Venture Investments, SV Tech Ventures, China Rock Capital Management and China Ding Cheng Holding Group supplied $6m in series A funding. Last month, Epibiome secured $1m in debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank.
