News round up 23 July 2018

NewStem detects $4m seed round
Hebrew University of Jerusalem has spun out NewStem to develop a stem cell-based approach for predicting whether a cancer patient is likely to respond to chemotherapy.m

Q-Ctrl recalculates seed round
Q-Ctrl featured in the initial portfolio of Csiro’s Main Sequence Ventures and has now also been backed by Data Collective, Sequoia China and Horizon Ventures.

Warf helps Gregor screen $900,000 seed round
UW Madison’s tech transfer arm has backed Gregor Diagnostics’ seed round to fund the development of a molecular diagnostic tool for prostate cancer.

Virginia seeks 3 Cavaliers
Interdisciplinary research projects could receive either $15,000 or $60,000 from the university and access a database of faculty profiles and potential research partners.

DoraHacks bites into Bitmain-led round
DoraHacks organises intensive collaborative programming challenges internationally, having launched with assistance from Tsinghua University in 2014.

Nohla rolls series B round to $56m
University of Tokyo Edge Capital joined a second close that expanded the cell therapy developer’s series B round by an extra $11m.

Xatek pulls $9.1m series A together
Case Western Reserve spinout Xatek has built a sensor-based chip for measuring a patient’s ability to clot blood.

Undo debugs $14m series B
CIC has returned for software debugging company Undo’s series B round after previously providing capital in 2015 and 2016.

GeoSpock tees up funding round
Cambridge spinout GeoSpock hopes to generate between $19.9m and $26.5m to help push its geo-temporal data visualisation package into international markets.

MedWhat lays down legal claims
MedWhat insists Stanford University failed to disclose a conflict of interest when it invested in rival virtual medical assistant developer Sensely.

Ascentage tends to $150m series C
Ascentage, based on research at University of Michigan, has increased its total funding to more than $240m after closing a $150m series C round.

Modus stays the course for $15.8m series A
HealthCap has backed sickle cell disease therapy developer Modus Therapeutics, joining existing shareholders such as Karolinska Development.

UNM fields 11 spinouts
University of New Mexico tempted all 11 new spinouts in 2017-18 to remain in the state, a marked improvement on the four companies that chose to remain during the previous year.

ASI counts down to $93m fund
The Italian Space Agency has put its weight behind the $93m Astra Ventures that will invest in spinouts developing space technologies.

High Alpha reaches $102m
Unnamed endowments have helped High Alpha launch its second enterprise software-focused fund and affiliated startup studio.

Xilinx digs up DeePhi acquisition
Deep learning technology startup DeePhi had raised funding from investors including Tsinghua Holdings as well as Samsung, Ant Financial, MediaTek and its new owner, Xilinx.

Corporates tuck into Mosa Meat’s series A
The cultured meat spinout of Maastricht University raised $8.7m to help scale the manufacturing of meat products grown from stem cells.

Penn connects to J&J for healthcare scheme
Penn JPod will be one of two university-focused networking hubs backed by Johnson & Johnson to drive commercialisation and knowledge transfer in the healthcare sector.

AgBiome enters series C sphere with $65m
Utimco returned to reinvest in AgBiome, having previously backed a $34.5m series B round for the UNC spinout in 2015.

Notre Dame breeds 27 companies in 2017-18
The inaugural year of Notre Dame’s Idea Center commercialisation initiative almost equalled the total number of companies generated in the university’s history.

Megh Computing stores $1.5m round
Cloud computing technology developer Megh Computing has a base at Portland State’s accelerator and has secured capital from three local investors.

Butler joins Kenzie Academy’s seed class
Tech apprenticeship centre Kenzie Academy raised $4.2m from investors including Butler University and will partner the latter institution to enhance the prestige of its own awards.

Aspero probes Innosphere for funding
Colorado endoscopy spinout Aspero Medical has won the backing of Innosphere Fund, a vehicle for promising members of the Innosphere incubator.

Bossa Nova spots Hawxeye
Bossa Nova has acquired Carnegie Mellon’s Hawxeye and will integrate the spinout’s object recognition technology into its own offering.

Neuraly nets $36m in series A round
Dongkoo Bio&Pharma and D&D Pharmatech both contributed to a series A round for the neurologic disorder drug spinout from Johns Hopkins.