News round up 11 June 2018

A look back on GUV: Fusion 2018
Global University Venturing rounds up some of the highlights from its London conference last month, which also featured the GUV Awards.

Zai Labs picks up Crescendo licence
Cambridge spinout Crescendo Biologics has leveraged its transgenic protein discovery platform to license out an antibody to biopharmaceutical developer Zai Lab.

Ceres expands series A riches to $8.5m
Ceres Nanosciences has added a $5.5m extension from investors including the LVG Seed Fund to help continue development of its diagnostics test for Lyme disease.

CMR Surgical strings together $100m series B
Cambridge Innovation Capital has returned after backing CMR Surgical’s two-tranche $46m series A round in 2016 and 2017.

Northwestern helps anchor $65m Lakeside Discovery
Northwestern is the third US university, after Vanderbilt and Johns Hopkins, to team up with Deerfield Management for an investment fund.

Gibbons becomes TLA licensing director
Rakhi Gibbons has become director of licensing at TLA after 12 years in the tech transfer business at University of Arizona and University of Michigan.

Allied Minds makes Foley non-executive director
Fritz Foley is a senior associate dean and professor for financial planning at Harvard Business School.

Subtle Medical identifies seed funding
Stanford medical imaging processing spinout Subtle Medical previously had raised $1.1m from investors including corporate internet group Baidu’s corporate venturing arm.

Purdue Ag-celerator duo each reap $50,000
Animal vaccine enhancement developer ZeaVaxx and crop dehydrator manufacturer JUA Technologies both reached the finals of Purdue’s agtech competition.

Enyo latches onto $46.8m series B
The spinout has bagged support from Inserm Transfert Initiative and two Bpifrance-managed funds for its clinical-stage therapy for hepatitis B.

Emory kicks off healthcare fund
Emory Healthcare will join Innovation Hub Enterprises to raise a venture fund for consumer-focused healthcare models and technologies.

Lime sweetens $250m deal
GV is reportedly leading a funding round for Lime, a bike-sharing platform also backed by NGP Capital and the Stanford-StartX fund.

MiAlgae feeds on $672,000 seed round
MiAlgae was formed by a University of Edinburgh alumnus to commercialise microalgae-based animal feed supplements sourced from treated wastewater.

Innoactive visualises $5.2m round
Innoactive’s backers include Unternehmertum Venture Capital Partners, where company founder Daniel Seidl completed bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

Patreon picks up StartX-backed Kit
Kit started as an affiliate marketing platform but has since pivoted into creative merchandising, which could tie with Patreon’s offering.

Ripple sends $50m to 17 universities
Ripple will pour $50m into R&D at 17 academic institutions, including institutions in the US, UK, India and Brazil.

Paypal airlifts Jetlore
Stanford-Start X Fund-backed Jetlore has been acquired by  Paypal, which will integrate the retail analytics platform into its own marketing and analytics package.

Sorex senses funding
Cambridge spinout Sorex Sensors is importing a design already used for telecoms filters and multiplexes to construct compact and high-sensitivity sensors.

Camp4 discovers Kraft in its $30m A round
Camp4 has attracted capital from investors such as Kraft Group to continue development of its drug discovery platform based on work at MIT and Harvard Medical School.

Boxbot ignites $7.5m seed round
Autonomous logistics technology developer Boxbot, which has now raised $9m altogether, was co-founded by graduates from UC Berkeley and Massachusetts Institute of Technology

UCR sets up with Chile
UC Riverside has partnered the Know Hub Chile partnership to help Chile conduct better research and tech transfer.

Concordance collects $2.5m prescription
The prescription monitoring device developer and Purdue affiliate previously disclosed approximately $1.8m in funding through securities filings.

Reculta recruits IIMA for seed round
Reculta was founded by a former recruitment secretary at IIMA to help universities and companies streamline the process behind making offers.

BiomeSense digests up to $250,000
BiomeSense won University of Chicago Innovation Fund’s competition for its proposed biosensor that could provide medical feedback based on the bacteria found in a patient’s faeces.

EPropulsion stares into Beyond for $10m
Marine product maker EPropulsion, which was founded by a HKUST graduate, will soon launch a 4K resolution subsea drone camera.

Eight startups join Maryland duo-backed accelerator
Trajectory Next has received $125,000 in funding from Tedco to drive technologies including an ankle robot and voice-controlled heart disease management software.