Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.
Nectin Therapeutics, an Israel-based cancer immune checkpoint inhibitor developer allied to Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJ), has raised an initial $6m in a round featuring its founding investor Integra Holdings, the investment firm focused on HUJ spinouts, Globes reported yesterday. The round is currently led by venture fund aMoon and is expected to close at $15m. The spinout aims to inhibit a family of proteins called Nectin with monoclonal antibodies in order to prevent cancers from neutralising the body’s immune system T-cells. The approach is the result of work by Ofer Mandelboim, a professor in HUJ’s Immunocology and Cancer Research Center, and Stipan Jonjic, who practices at University of Rijeka’s Department of Histology and Embryology Center for Proteomics. Nectin Therapeutics had raised seed funding from Integra Holdings when it was founded in 2017.
Oxford University Innovation, the tech transfer office of University of Oxford, has incubated career advice app Careershe to be commercialised by Singapore-based JobForesight, marking its first startup in the country. Careershe lets students aged from 15 to 25 sharpen up on skills that are attractive to employers as they progress toward their desired careers. The app is initially aimed at China-based students – according to a study from higher education consultancy MyCos, almost a third of Chinese graduates leave their first job within the first six months.
