Sanifit Therapeutics, a Spain-based developer of treatments for vascular calcification disorders spun out of University of the Balearic Islands, has been bought by pharmaceutical group Vifor Pharma for €205m ($231m) upfront that could be expanded by up to €170m in clinical, regulatory and market access milestone payments. Sanifit had raised $149m as of a $62.8m series D round in mid-2019 featuring pharmaceutical firm Lundbeck vehicle Lundbeckfonden Ventures. Forendo Pharma, a Finland-based endometriosis drug developer backed by Karolinska Development, the commercialisation firm formed by Karolinska Institute, has agreed to an acquisition by pharmaceutical firm Organon for $75m upfront and potentially up to $870m in milestone payments. Forendo had raised a total of $38.5m as of mid-2019 when it received $5.6m from Sunstone Life Science Ventures. Novo Seeds, Novartis Venture Fund and M Ventures – corporate venture capital units for pharmaceutical firms Novo, Novartis and Merck Group – were among its earlier backers, as were Finnvera, Tekes and Vesalius Biocapital. Narrative Science, a US-based data analytics technology provider backed by Northwestern University, has agreed to be acquired by enterprise software producer Salesforce for an undisclosed sum. Financial services firm USAA led a $10m series D round for the company in 2014 that included Sapphire Ventures, Jump Capital and Battery Ventures that took its total funding to $32m, its earlier backers including In-Q-Tel. The company added $11m from USAA, Jump Capital and Sapphire Ventures in 2017. Health Fidelity, a US-based developer of risk adjustment software for use in health insurance backed by health system UPMC, will be purchased by healthcare management software producer Edifecs in a transaction of undisclosed size. Health Fidelity had raised $19.3m from unnamed investors in January 2015 before University of Pittsburgh-aligned UPMC, which helped the company create its technology, added an undisclosed amount two months later. DeepReason.ai, a UK-based knowledge graphs technology developer spun out of University of Oxford, has been acquired by media intelligence provider Meltwater for $7.3m in combined equity and cash, including potential earnouts. DeepReason was founded in 2018 but does not appear to have raised any equity financing prior to the acquisition. Future Planet Capital, the UK-based spinout-focused investment firm, has purchased Milltrust Agricultural Investments and RT Capital. The deal brings another $130m to Future Planet’s assets under management, increasing the total to $300m, and bolstering its portfolio to 100 companies. Additional reporting by Robert Lavine.

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Thierry Heles

Thierry Heles is the editor of Global University Venturing, host of the Beyond the Breakthrough interview podcast and responsible for the monthly GUV Gazette (sign up here for free).