Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.
Technis, a Switzerland-based retail analytics hardware spinout of EPFL, has secured CHF2m ($2.2m) from real estate group M3 Groupe as part of an ongoing round targeting $3.5m, Heidi.News reported yesterday. Technis has developed a carpet for retail stores accompanied by sensors which count how many people are within the shop at a given time, without breaching their privacy as with 3D cameras that record personal attributes such as facial features. Technis will use the funding to consolidate its position in Switzerland, where M3 Groupe has exclusive rights to distribute its technology, while also looking to expand overseas to capture anticipated demand from stores looking to enforce social distancing. Funding will also go to upgrading its product. Technis had already raised $277,000 in a mid-2018 round involving undisclosed investors according to startup competition VentureKick, which awarded $128,000 to the spinout in 2016.
IIIT Hyderabad Seed Fund, a university venturing unit for International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad, has backed a seed round of undisclosed size for Stack Finance, an India-based financial services platform geared to millennials, YourStory reported yesterday. The deal also included SOSV and its mobile tech-focused accelerator MOX, in addition to AngelList India and private investors including Rohit Chanana, Ajith Karimpana, Ujwal Boyalla and affiliates of Rebalance Angels. Founded in April 2019, Stack Finance markets a smartphone app where consumers can access payment cards and loan products alongside an automated assistant intended to help them save and pay bills promptly. The seed funding is intended to help build Stack Finance’s workforce and enhance its core technology.
