News round up 2 July 2018

Big deal: QuantumScape fuels up on VW cash
VW will invest $100m in QuantumScape and form a joint venture with the Stanford spinout to develop batteries for long-range electric vehicles.

Tokyo detaches ThinkCyte with $3.2m
ThinkCyte’s platform uses machine learning algorithms to classify cells for research, clinical and therapeutic purposes.

Nottingham cashes up CrownBio stake
Nottingham took equity in drug discovery technology CrownBio after the latter purchased a spinout from the university’s School of Medicine in 2015.

Autolus reaches $150m IPO
The UCL spinout has priced its shares at the top of its range and secured $150m in proceeds, up from its initial target of $100m.

UC Berkeley SkyDeck checks in latest cohort
A total of 22 participants have each received $100,000 in funding as part of the UC Berkeley accelerator.

MedWhat battle heats up with countersuit
Virtual medical assistant developer MedWhat has hit back at investors including Stanford University and its StartX Fund with allegations they broke the law on eight separate counts.

Swiss spinouts each secure $131,500 prize
ETH Zurich wind power spinout Skypull and eye care diagnosis platform RetinAI, from University of Bern and Université de Lausanne, have secured cash from Venture Kick.

Chacowicz charges over to Mars Innovation
Steven Chackowicz will be responsible for identifying and commercialising research in the medical device sector.

TTTech sells stake to B&C
B&C has acquired a 9% stake in TTTech for an undisclosed sum, guaranteeing that the TU Wien spinout will continue to be majority-owned by Austrian shareholders.

Allakos aligns itself with $75m IPO
Johns Hopkins-backed biopharmaceutical developer Allakos has filed for a $75m initial public offering after raising more than $160m in equity funding.

Precision proves effective to close $110m series B
Duke Management Company and Osage University Partners have invested in the genome editing technology spinout from Duke University.

Flinders joins First Graphene to press 2D Fluidics
The spinout will use a chemical processing machine invented at Flinders University to produce nanomaterials such as graphene and carbon nanotubes.

Constellation points way to public markets
UC Investment Office-backed gene expression technology developer Constellation Pharmaceuticals has filed for an $86.3m initial public offering.

Irish spinout generation slides in 2017
Irish institutions have spun out fewer businesses and awarded fewer licences, options and assignments than in previous years.

Carisma charms investors into $53m series A
IP Group and Penn Medicine have both returned to back a series A round for Carisma Therapeutics, the Pennsylvania spinout formerly known as Carma.

Ziliomics puts seed funding in the mix
Oncological treatment software developer Ziliomics has raised an undisclosed sum from Fight Against Cancer Innovation Trust, a commercialisation partner of OICR.

Pennsylvania lines up $50m
University of Pennsylvania will pour money into at least 10 Philadelphia-based biotech companies over three years and has already backed Tmunity, Carisma and Tycho.

Appello closes out $10.5m series A
Vanderbilt spinout Appello has been backed by Deerfield Management, which recently launched a $65m commercialisation partnership with the university.

Charles University spawns TTO
Charles University Innovation Prague will have an annual budget of at least $135,000 over five years to establish spinouts and license IP.

UIDP26 puts the spotlight on collaboration
University-Industry Demonstration Partnership brought together delegates for its 26th and biggest conference to date this past April.