EnCare Biotech, a life sciences spin-out of the University Medical Centre Utrecht, has secured €5.5m ($6.84m) at launch.
The investment was co-led by Index Ventures and Thuja Capital. Joining in participation was Utrecht Holdings, the investment company of Utrecht University and the Medical Centre. All three will take places on EnCare’s board of directors.
The company is developing therapies to prevent heart failure following a heart attack.
Australia has one of the world's most mature university investment ecosystems, thanks to large pensions funds, Uniseed and royalties from wifi.
The number of deals in UK spinouts at the earliest stage of equity investing has been falling over the past few years, highlighting a potential bottleneck in early-stage funding.
Hopes are lifting that increased pension investment will encourage late-stage startups to stay in the country and even seek to list on the London Stock Exchange.
Global University Venturing (GUV) is where tech transfer, academic and investment experts meet to explore the latest ideas and technologies driving innovation forward. We drive the discussions and share best practices that are critical to the success of spinouts, scaleouts and innovation programmes. Our aim is to help improve the processes of bringing innovations from academia to global markets and facilitate their integration into the broader business ecosystem.
