Consumer

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

Several corporates helped the Montana State University-backed microbial protein developer take its total funding above $500m.

The non-profit was founded last year to work with universities and research labs commercialising technologies around social impact.

Congruent Ventures has returned for a $50m series B round that will allow Meati to complete a commercial production plant in time for a market launch next year.

The Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre will invest in research projects at Scottish universities to support the creation of more spinouts.

Motif FoodWorks, which traces its roots to MIT, has pocketed $226m in a round backed by returning investor Louis Dreyfus a month after Motif’s parent agreed to a reverse merger.

Cellular Agriculture was spun out of University of Bath in 2016 as the UK’s first startup in the cultured meat space, but its ambitions go far beyond a lab-grown burger.

The company has committed $100m to the Catalyst Fund for early-stage start-ups, which may be available to university startups.

Caltech and Pennsylvania back on-line teaching company Coursera, which just won the praise of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.