Daily deal net: August 27, 2019

TriEye, an Israel-based vehicle safety sensor developer exploiting Hebrew University of Jerusalem research, has extended its series A round to $19m with a $2m investment from Porsche Ventures, a subsidiary of carmaker Porsche, according to media reports. Porsche’s contribution adds to an initial $17m tranche in May 2019 led by Intel Capital – an investment arm of chipset maker Intel – that featured VC fund Grove Ventures and private investor Marius Nacht among others. Founded in 2017, TriEye has created a short-wave infrared sensor that can be used to steer autonomous vehicles and driver assistance systems in poor visibility. The company claims its semiconductor design means the sensors are less costly to manufacture compared with competing technologies. TriEye previously closed a $3m seed round led by Grove Ventures in June 2018.
Syzygy Plasmonics, a US-based photocatalytic reactor developer based on Rice University research, has received $5.8m in a series A round co-led by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)’s The Engine incubator and Goose Society of Texas. Angel investors, including some connected with the University of Toronto-aligned Creative Destruction Lab, also contributed together with Evok Innovations. Syzygy is working on a photocatalytic reactor for industrial chemical production that relies on light from renewable energy sources rather than combustible fuel, with the goal of reducing carbon emissions. The series A will help it continue development of its technology. Evok Innovations was described as an existing investor in the press release.
Belgium-based lab-on-a-chip technology company Antelope Dx has spun out of University of Ghent and biotech firm MyCartis with €5.1m ($5.6m) of seed capital from investors including individuals Rudi Mariën and Jos Sluys. Antelope Dx will exploit research from Ghent’s photonics group to create optical silicon chips as the basis for running various biomarker-driven clinical tests, starting with a urine sampling test for sexually transmitted diseases, followed by a diagnostics kit that classifies virus and bacteria-driven infections.
MIT’s The Engine also led a $2.3m seed round yesterday for E25Bio, a US-based rapid medical diagnostics test developer spun out from the institute. Venture capital firm Alumni Ventures Group and angel investor Alejandro Chavez filled out the round. Founded in 2018, E25Bio is working on diagnostics tools for mosquito-borne illnesses such as dengue and the Zika virus. Its first product is an over-the-counter product which screens fevers for viruses potentially caused by infectious diseases. E25Bio has completed clinical testing of the device and has filed for regulatory approval in its initial market geographies.
Prophecy.io, a US-based cloud data engineering platform developer and graduate of University of California, Berkeley’s SkyDeck accelerator, has obtained $2m in seed funding from venture capital firm SignalFire. Founded in 2017, Prophecy.io has built a software development platform catered to developing cloud-hosted data engineering applications while supplanting legacy extract, transform and load operations. Ilya Kirnos, managing director at SignalFire, has joined the board of directors. Prophecy.io received $100,000 from SkyDeck’s autumn 2018 cohort and has also raised an unspecified amount of angel funding previously.
Imperial College London (ICL) has formally spun out UK-based Affect.ai, to commercialise a mood tracking device powered by machine learning. Affect.ai’s technology applies the machine learning models to patient voice recordings to gauge changes indicative of their mood, allowing clinicians to monitor developments between appointments, one of the biggest barriers to managing major depression. Affect.ai’s scientific co-founders include Woochan Hwang, a final-year student at ICL’s School of Medicine, Alice Tang, an ICL medical school graduate and now-practising junior doctor, and Wu Wong, a data scientist.
Medo.ai, a Canada-based ultrasound diagnostics technology spinout of University of Alberta, has provided an in-depth look at its smartphone-powered ultrasound stethoscope app, CTV News Edmonton has reported. Founded in 2017, Medo.ai has created an app that relies on ultrasound and computer analysis to provide enable clinicians to look into the patient’s body, in a similar manner to the traditional stethoscope. The company will initially target infant hip dysplasia – where the hip socket is underdeveloped at an early age – in a bid to provide prompt diagnoses that reduce the need for surgery later in life.