News round up 18 June

Editorial: Japan and the world’s animal spirits start to soar
Recent deals highlight public markets are catching up with private valuations.

Silicon triggers $7m
Cambridge Enterprise has returned to back Silicon Microgravity, which builds on collaborative research between the university and BP.

McCarry to lead UNT Murphy Center
Jon McCarry has taken a role at UNT’s Murphy Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation as the hub looks to strengthen its presence beyond the university.

Intersective chalks up $3.8m
Edtech software engine developer Intersective has been backed by Main Sequence Ventures, allocating the funding for further R&D and overseas expansion.

Through the Cords pulls in $975,000
Utah-born intubation tool manufacturer Through the Cords has secured $600,000 of equity to add to grants from university competition and the Utah governor’s office.

Precision BioSciences details $110m series B
Duke spinout Precision BioSciences, whose investors include Amgen and Baxter, has raised an initial $88m in series B funding out of a $110m target.

Mode fashions $16m investment
The Cornell spinout has emerged from stealth with funding from GV and New Enterprise Associates.

Forty Seven adds up to IPO
Forty Seven, a GV-backed immuno-oncology spinout from Stanford University, has filed for a $115m initial public offering on Nasdaq just eight months after closing a $75m series B.

Byton drives $500m series B
Investors in the series B round included TUS Holdings, FAW and Contemporary Amperex Technology.

Humacyte engineers $150m dealpr
Fresenius Medical Care will purchase a 19% stake in Humacyte, which closed a $75m series C round in March 2018.

Hickson to join Cancer Research UK
Tony Hickson, currently the managing director of Imperial Innovations, will become chief business officer of Cancer Research UK in August.

Polycera treats itself to $9m series A
Polycera was spun out from Water Planet, itself a spinout of UCLA, and was established to commercialise polymer membranes for water filtration.

Sensome matches up $5.4m in funding
Sensome develops micro-sensor systems for medical devices which exploit impedance together with machine learning algorithms to reliably identify biological tissues.

Autolus shoots for $144m IPO
The UCL spinout has set the pricing range at $15 to $17 and stands to raise nearly $144m in proceeds if underwriters take up their 30-day option.

UMichigan fund picks Six Foods
Michigan’s student-led Social Venture Fund has backed Six Foods in its bid to convince consumers that crickets are a more sustainable alternative to conventional meats.

Imperial dispatches RFC Power
New spinout RFC Power believes it has found a more cost-effective solution for large-capacity flow batteries used for power grid balancing and standalone plants.

Metaboards fires up $5m round
Oxford spinout Metaboards has the backing of Oxford Sciences Innovation as it targets revenue streams for its metamaterial-based wireless charging technology.

Intraband wraps up Wisconsin-Madison licence
Infrared laser manufacturer Intraband was spun out in 2007 and is aiming to deliver products for purposes including medical diagnostics and environmental monitoring.

Bibliotech bookmarks $4m round
University of Oxford Innovation Fund has backed Bibliotech’s digital textbook library service, which is already used by universities including Oxford itself.

Nkarta takes up NUS and St Judes patents
Nkarta has added further patents advancing an immuno-oncological approach honed by scientific founder Dario Campana.

Michigan’s Desai Accelerator onboards six teams
Desai will supply each participating team with $25,000 in addition to benefits such as a staff of 10 interns drawn from University of Michigan.

O’Neill becomes Facit president
David O’Neill has become president of commercialisation unit Facit on a permanent basis after taking over duties as caretaker last year.

StrideBio engineers $15.7m series A
StrideBio is based on research conducted at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and University of Florida.

Evolve BioSystems digests $40m series C
Tate and Lyle returned for the UC Davis spinout’s series C round and was joined by fellow corporates Johnson & Johnson, Continental Grain, Arla Foods and Campbell Soup.

Bridgeport picks Plourde for tech transfer
Gary Plourde has left his role at private intellectual property office Janus Patents to become University of Bridgeport’s director tech transfer and venture creation.

Tableau captures Empirical Systems
MIT spinout and automated statistics technology developer Empirical Systems had raised $2.5m from investors including Hyperplane Venture Capital and Brain Robotics Capital.

InSphero orchestrates $10m round
ETH Zurich and University of Zurich spinout InSphero has now raised $35m and will commercialise its organ-on-a-chip technology.

D3Sciences needles Arizona licence
The Arizona spinout plans to develop a biopsy needle that could improve the chances of identifying precision treatments for cancer.

Geospin pinpoints seven-figure round
Freiburg spinout Geospin has lured funding from HTGF and Thüga, adding to $17,700 raised from a Volkswagen incubator in August 2017.

D’Agostino calls time at LSU
Louisiana State alumnus Charles D’Agostino has led Louisiana Business & Technology Center since it was founded in 1988.

Volograms reaches for $710,000
Trinity College Dublin spinout Volograms has secured the University Bridge Fund as an investor for its VR and AR hologram creation engine.

Enduraphin fuels up on pre-seed funding
The sports nutrition product develop
er received help from Clarkson University’s entrepreneurship hub and has now been backed by Binghamton University.

Ethos has $11.5m mindset
Life insurance platform Ethos has emerged from stealth with backing from investors including Stanford University as it looks to drive business growth and product development.