Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.
Definigen, a UK-based stem cell producer spun out of University of Cambridge, completed a £3.3m ($4.4m) round on Tuesday that featured Business Growth Fund (BGF), a vehicle backed by six of the UK’s largest banks. BGF invested $2.7m in the round, which was led by private equity firm 24Haymarket1. Definigen plans to leverage pluripotent stem cells and gene-editing technology to differentiate cells that address specific disease mutations. The spinout extends research from its chief scientific officer Ludovic Vallier, a professor specialised in controlling stem cell differentiation at the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, an initiative funded by the UK government’s Medical Research Council and charitable foundation Wellcome Trust. Definigen has now raised at least $12.8m in funding to date, most recently securing $2.3m from investors led by Cambridge Enterprise, the university’s TTO, in 2016.
Targed Biopharmaceuticals, a Netherlands-based thermobolytic clot treatment spinout of UMC Utrecht, has received €1.35m ($1.7m) in seed funding from investors including an unnamed public-private partnership backed by the university. The round also featured the UMC-backed Utrecht Health Seed Fund, life sciences-focused venture firm Curie Capital, First Fund and “additional” funding from public-private research partnership Health Holland. Targed Biopharmaceutics is developing a drug compound called Microlyse to dissolve blood clots that cause thrombosis and acute ischemic stroke.
1 Disclaimer: 24Haymarket is an investor in Mawsonia, the publisher of Global University Venturing.
