Investment

The cancer drug developer emerged from stealth with $194m in funding, $85m of which was just closed in a round featuring returning investor Roche Venture Fund.

Carnegie Mellon University's language teaching app Duolingo has received series F funding from existing backer CapitalG and is now valued at $1.5bn.

Gene therapy developer Limelight Bio grew from research at University of Pennsylvania and has landed $75m in its first publicly-disclosed round.

Pfizer Ventures led the immuno-oncology drug developer's latest round, which was spun out of Institut Paoli-Calmettes with the help of Satt Sud-Est and Inserm Transfert.

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

Temasek could reportedly invest in CureFit at a valuation of $800m, three years after UC-RNT Fund supplied $25m to the wellness services provider.

With hundreds of university venture funds, internal commercialisation vehicles and third-party firms the reality in today’s innovation ecosystem, selecting the nominees and the winner for Investment Unit of the Year is increasingly challenging.

Goldwind, Legal & General and Equinor have all taken part in a series D that achieved a $41m first close and boosted the Oxford spinout’s total equity and debt to more than $118m.

Ribon Therapeutics has emerged out of stealth after three years of developing a lead asset targeting cancer based on research at MIT, UT Southwestern and Harvard Medical School.

Ambys Medicines has raised $60m in a series A round backed by Takeda and signed a strategic partnership agreement with the corporate worth $80m.