Texas-based incubator InCube Labs, partnered with the University of Texas at San Antonio, raises $30m from local and private investors to support life science startups.
InCube Labs, which recently signed a 5-year research agreement with the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), has raised $30m for a new fund, InCube Ventures II, from local and private investors to support life science startups.
InCube signed the deal with UTSA in October last year, which will see the organisations jointly developing biomedical technologies. InCube will have access to UTSA’s academic and student research teams, as well as the option of using the University’s facilities to conduct research. In return, InCube will provide strategic guidance on how to develop the technologies, conduct trials, and lead the University through the early stages of commercialisation.
InCube hopes that the latest fund, coupled with cheap cost of living and officials willing to lure companies with incentives, will revitalise interest in San Antonio as a hub for US bioscience research. Currently, the area falls behind other US hubs such as San Francisco.
The firm has already brought three companies with it to San Antonio, lured by $8m in funding from the City of San Antonio, when it chose to expand to Texas: Corhythm, Fe3 Medical, and Neurolink.
Cory Hallam, director of UTSA’s Center for Innovation and Technology Entrepreneurship, said: “On several fronts this helps push forward our efforts to become a Tier 1 university. It gives us a great research relationship with a company that has been very successful in developing and commercializing many technologies. That’s a phenomenal two-way street.”
