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

InnerPlant, a US-based developer of organic plant sensors, disclosed a total of $5.65m in funding yesterday, garnered from a pre-seed and seed round backed by TAU Ventures, an investment vehicle for Tel Aviv University. The investment was led by MS&AD Ventures, a corporate venturing subsidiary of insurance group MS&AD, and also backed by VC firms Bee Partners and UpWest.
Lightspeed Microscopy, a US-based developer of an end-to-end microscopy platform for pathologists, has collected $4m in a series A round led by Dynamk Capital, according to GeekWire. The company was spun out of University of Washington and will use the money to commercialise its technology.
Ksana Health, a US-based digital health spinout of University of Oregon, has raised $2m in a seed round backed by Re.Mind Capital, according to the Portland Business Journal. Ksana is working on a behavioural health platform that relies on data collected through a smartphone, including physical activity, geography movement and language patterns to help patients and doctors better understand and improve mental health, mood, cognition and sleep.
Volare, a Finland-based company that turns food industry waste, such as inedible parts of grains, into protein and lipids for pet food, fish feed and cosmetics products, has picked up €700,000 ($850,000) in funding from Maki.vc. The spinout of VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland is looking to construct a commercial-scale production plant in 2023 and then build several plants throughout Europe. In the short term, it is planning to increase its headcount from six to 10 staff.
Esya Labs and HeioThera, US-based precision diagnostics and a therapeutic platform technology to treat autoimmune disorders respectively, have each received $250,000 from the George Shultz Innovation Fund, a vehicle for University of Chicago’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Both companies are spinouts from the universities and due to the fund’s requirement for match funding are set to receive additional capital in the near future.
– Additional reporting by Robert Lavine

Thierry Heles

Thierry Heles is the editor of Global University Venturing, host of the Beyond the Breakthrough interview podcast and responsible for the monthly GUV Gazette (sign up here for free).