Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.
Fieldwork Robotics, a UK-based soft robot manufacturing spinout of University of Plymouth, today obtained £298,000 ($387,000) in equity at a $1.8m valuation. The round includes $62,000 in debt converted by commercialisation firm and existing investor Frontier IP, with the remainder supplied by unnamed new backers. Fieldwork Robotics develops soft robotic tools for harvesting agricultural crops – its first product is for picking raspberries, a crop known to easily bruise. The company builds on the work of Martin Stoelen, lecturer of robotics in University of Plymouth’s School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics.
Sonic Incytes, a Canada-based liver diagnostics company, has formally debuted from University of British Columbia (UBC) having secured capital from the UBC Seed Fund. Sonic Incytes is working on an ultrasound-powered portable device that directly measures liver tissue elasticity to diagnose cirrhosis and fatty liver disease. The spinout raised $1m from undisclosed investors in 2018 after graduating from UBC’s Hatch accelerator.
