Biotech developers Animated Dynamics, Predictive Wear and Brightlamp have all secured commitments worth up to $250,000 from Foundry Investment Fund.
Foundry Investment Fund, the Purdue University-focused investment partnership launched by the university’s Research Foundation and medical device supplier Cook Medical, has allocated a maximum of $750,000 in matching funds to three Purdue-allied biotech companies.
Tumour drug response analysis provider Animated Dynamics has secured a $250,000 commitment from the vehicle, while neurological tracking software developer Brightlamp and medical diagnostics-enabled garments maker Predictive Wear will become eligible for up to $250,000 if they raise matching capital from elsewhere.
Foundry Investment Fund supplies capital to support the formation of viable businesses based on life sciences technologies. The vehicle, which has committed almost $5m to 13 companies over the past five years, makes partial commitments met by contributions from unspecified institutional and individual investors.
Founded in 2014, Animated Dynamics has developed an endoscopy camera that uses a technique known as biodynamic imaging to project the response of a particular cancer tumour to chemotherapy drugs.
The device emits low levels of light which scatter off living tissues such as tumours, to create a visual diagram of chemotherapy response akin to the Doppler radar’s effect in weather forecasting.
Animated Dynamics previously raised $1.3m of a $3m equity round in April 2018, according to a securities filing, following a $1.7m series A the previous year backed by Purdue Research Foundation, commercial real estate firm Vestian, Elevate Ventures and Caravel Ventures.
Founded in 2015, Brightlamp has devised a computer vision-equipped mobile app that works as a pupillometer, facilitating digital video recordings of the patient’s eye to measure alterations in pupil response potentially symptomatic of serious conditions including brain trauma and neurodegenerative disease.
The company received $20,000 in convertible financing in 2016 through Elevate Purdue Foundry Fund, an early-stage VC vehicle managed by Purdue and Elevate Ventures. It later raised $50,000 of equity for joining Ocean Accelerator in 2018.
Finally, Predictive Wear was established in 2015 to manufacture wearable garments that combine biomedical engineering, smart textiles and predictive analytics to help people monitor their health. The company’s first garment is an intelligent compression legging intended to supervise patients recovering from heart failure.
Predictive Wear obtained a $20,000 convertible non-recourse note from Elevate Purdue Foundry Fund in December 2018.
