Cambridge University sells stake in pharma spin-out for $5.3M
Cambridge University has pocketed millions of pounds on a seed investment it made seven years ago in a company that makes “test tube patients” for drug research. The university made £3.17m, more than 30 times its original investment, after selling its stake in Horizon Discovery, which grows batches of cells containing tailored DNA.
Isis Innovation, University of Oxford seed funded company, NaturalMotion, sold for $527m
Isis Innovation worked with Zoology researcher Torsten Reil to protect his intellectual property, develop a business plan, and introduce first-round investors. The company was spun out in 2001. US social games company Zynga has now finalised the acquisition of Natural Motion for more than $527m, one of the largest transactions ever involving an Oxford spin-out. […]
Google acquires U Toronto start-up, DNNresearch
The University of Toronto computer science department confirmed today that Google has acquired one of their startups lead by professor Geoffrey Hinton. DNNresearch Inc. was incorporated in 2012 and includes two of Hinton’s graduate students, Alex Krizhevsky and Ilya Sutskever. The startup focuses on deep neural networks (or “deep learning”) and will assist Google in the realm […]
Scottish packaging company readies for global expansion, seeded with monies from SMART:SCOTLAND proof of concept program
Thanks to ongoing support from Scottish Enterprise, Insignia Technologies Ltd is preparing to take its groundbreaking packaging technology to a global, £multi-billion market. The company created an intelligent ink that changes colour when exposed to external influences such as time, oxygen and humidity levels. Developed by leading chemist Professor Andrew Mills, the technology can be […]
UCSD Von Liebig Center Graduate, Ortiva Wireless, is acquired
Israel’s Allot Communications (NASDAQ:ALLT), which optimizes data traffic and performance for both fixed and mobile broadband networks, says it is acquiring San Diego-based Ortiva Wireless, which specializes in optimizing video streaming across wireless networks. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.