A round up of all the latest news on www.globaluniversityventuring.com for our subscribers.
Big deal: Nucana and Nightstar race to public markets
Nucana, a Scottish Investment Bank-backed cancer treatment developer, and Nightstar Therapeutics, an Oxford spinout focused on retinal gene therapies, have entered the public market.
Ten universities grind SoCal Startup Mill
The mainly California-based institutions have replicated the approach of an Arizona State University accelerator in the SoCal Startup Mill.
Goonewardene heads to Horizon Fund
Julie Goonewardene has been named as chief innovation officer of University of Texas System’s Horizon Fund.
Birmingham reveals bone regeneration research
The university’s tech transfer office has patented research that suggests particles called extra-cellular vesicles could be the key to unlocking bone regeneration.
SinfoníaRx founder launches UAVenture Capital
The fund will back University of Arizona companies and follows the acquisition of UA spinout SinfoníaRx by Tabula Rasa a month ago.
Amazon sculpts up to $100m for Body Labs
Amazon reportedly paid as much as $100m to buy Body Labs, whose scanning technology could help accurately predict the best fit for clothing customers on its portal.
Atriva captures $3.5m seed round
The biotech spinout will use the cash to fund clinical development and proof-of-concept for its lead candidate targeting influenza by 2018 and 2019.
Venneos grows up with series A
Max Planck Innovation has backed its biotech spinout’s series A round, which will be used to fund additional drug candidates for commercialisation.
Angaza powers up $10.5m series B
The Stanford-StartX fund participated in cleantech producer Angaza’s latest round, building on a relationship that started with Angaza’s participation in the StartX accelerator in 2014.
Immatics develops $58m series E
Amgen has joined a consortium of existing investors to provide $58m in funding to Immatics, a cancer immunotherapy developer spun out from University of Tübingen.
Investors allocate $21.7m to Featurespace
Touchstone Innovations has returned to back behavioural analytics spinout Featurespace in a funding round that also included payment processing platform Worldpay.
Recursion racks up $60m series B
The money will be used to expand Recursion’s drug discovery program, which uses machine-learning to rapidly collect data for a diverse range of diseases.
Spin Transfer turns to $22.8m investment
The bridge round will enable New York University spinout Spin Transfer Technologies to fund development of a commercial product based on its temporary data storage technology.
Palleon detects $47.6m series A
Palleon Pharmaceuticals has launched with $47.6m in series A funding to commercialise cancer therapies based on technology developed at Stanford and Dundee universities.
Trade bodies PraxisUnico and Auril have combined in a bid to improve their policy responses, support materials and events.
UTokyo enters 360ip Japan’s $8.9m fund
University of Tokyo’s investment unit and financial services provider Shinsei Bank have backed the fund, which will support local spinouts and startups.
NYU-backed accelerator sources participants
New York University has partnered venturing fund Rethink Education and trade advisory network StartEd for the accelerator, which could lead startups to a $170,000 follow-on investment.
