Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.

Biztex, a Japan-based robotic automation technology developer, has obtained ¥630m ($5.8m) in an equity and debt financing round featuring Miyako Capital, a venture capital affiliate of Kyoto University, KDDI Open Innovation Fund, a VC vehicle co-run by telecoms firm KDDI and Global Brain, IT services firm TIS and existing investor World Innovation Lab (WIL). Japan Finance Corporation and Shoko Chukin Bank supplied debt, but a ratio was not disclosed. Globis Alumni Growth Investment previously injected $179,000 in October 2018, after WIL had led a $3.6m series A round two months earlier, with participation from Genesia Ventures. The latter had already injected an undisclosed amount of seed funding in 2017. MindsDB, a US-based machine learning development software spinout of University of California, Berkeley, has received $3m in a round featuring the university’s accelerator Berkeley SkyDeck. VentureBeat has reported. The deal was led by venture capital firm OpenOcean and also includes Rogue Capital, SCM Advisors and angel investor Amber Atherton. MindsDB has built an open-source platform that automates the process of training and implementing machine learning models. The funding will support MindsDB’s revenue strategy by expanding its team. MindsDB had raised $1.3m prior to the latest round from investors including Berkeley SkyDeck. Sprout.ai, a UK-based insurance claims processing and fraud prevention software spinout of Imperial College London, has closed its second seed round at $2.5m. Amadeus Capital Partners led the round with contributions from Playfair Capital and Techstars, with the funding going to an expansion of Sprout.ai’s data science, engineering and sales capacity to prepare for its entry into the US market. Sprout.ai’s platform processes unstructured data contained within insurance claims using blockchain and natural language processing before checking its analysis against public and web-based sources. The spinout is expecting greater demand for its technology as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. It last raised £500,000 ($630,000) in a June 2019 seed round backed by Amadeus and multiple angel investors, according to Fintech Futures. LipoCoat, a Netherlands-based developer of anti-infection coatings for medical products spun out of University of Twente, has attracted €1.5m ($1.6m) from investors including Rabobank Innovation Fund, a corporate venturing vehicle for agriculture-focused financial services firm Rabobank. The deal was also backed by High Tech Fund, a VC fund focused on the Dutch municipality of Enschede, in addition to undisclosed private investors. Founded in 2016, LipoCoat supplies non-toxic materials that prevent bacteria and viruses from bonding to medical surfaces. The funding is expected to accelerate LipoCoat’s route to market, including…

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