University of Navarra Vivet Therapeutics nabs Series A funds

Vivet Therapeutics (‘Vivet’), an emerging biotechnology company developing novel gene therapies for rare, inherited metabolic diseases, announced it has raised €37.5 million in a Series A financing round. The round involved a syndicate of leading international life sciences investors led by Novartis Venture Fund and Columbus Venture Partners, and including Roche Venture Fund, HealthCap, Kurma […]

John Hopkins baby box startup wins $25,000 through Hopkins Social Innovation Lab

A mother looking to prevent cases of sudden infant death syndrome in Maryland has won $25,000 to help fund her “baby box” startup concept. As a member of Johns Hopkins Social Innovation Lab’s 2016-2017 cohort, Shantell Roberts has been working on a venture around Portable Alternative Cribs, through her nonprofit Touching Young Lives Inc. Enlarge […]

U-M undergrad venture fund makes first investment 

Benjamin Rathi, a business and computer science senior at the University of Michigan, already had a successful startup under his belt when he won a spot on the Zell Early Stage Fund as a junior. The fund, which launched in fall 2015 with a dozen juniors at the Zell Lurie Institute housed at the Ross […]

New French Biotech Seed Fund Raises €65M-to support university innovation

Advent France Biotechnology, founded in 2015, has exceeded its initial fundraising target at the first closing. Its Seed-Fund I now counts with €64.75M that will be invested predominantly in France. The funds will back entrepreneurs and early-stage companies with the potential to develop first- or best-in-class innovations that address unmet medical needs. Advent France has declared […]

Invent Penn State’s Fund For Innovation helps start seven new ventures

A little less than two years after the launch of the Fund for Innovation, Invent Penn State has backed nearly 50 emerging Penn State technologies and has provided startup funding to promising new ventures that were born out of the program. “Although many universities have commercialization programs,” said Vice President for Research Neil Sharkey, “the […]

Company founded by two Marquette University researchers raises $26 million in funding 

Promentis Pharmaceuticals, a Milwaukee company co-founded by Drs. John Mantsch and David Baker, researchers from the Marquette University College of Health Sciences, raised $26 million, including $17.2 million in its third funding round. OrbiMed, F-Prime Capital Partners (formerly Fidelity Biosciences) and Aisling Capital were the lead investors. This is exceptional syndicate of investors, particularly for […]

Oxford University’s Spybiotech raises £4m in seed funding to tackle pandemics

An Oxford University company developing a biological superglue to tackle diseases and pandemics has won £4m of early-stage backing from Google’s venture capital arm GV and Oxford Sciences Innovation (OSI), allowing it to spin out into an independent business. Spybiotech has developed a molecular superglue which it believes can be used to create vaccines more quickly […]

Upside Biotechnologies raises $2.3 m in funding round

Upside Biotechnologies, a regenerative medicine start-up, said it has successfully raised $2.3 million in its Series A funding round. The Auckland-based company is developing an advanced, world-class skin replacement treatment for patients suffering major burns. The capital raised will be used to complete development of the product, demonstrate proof of concept, ready the product for […]