Cork to Kitakyushu, spin-outs off the usual map

Spin-outs off the usual map.

Four university spin-outs from four countries: India, Ireland, South Korea and Japan. Three announced investor money between 30 October and 6 November. The fourth took a loan.

• Venomics AI, Bengaluru: $2.7M pre-seed, co-led by Speciale Invest and South Park Commons, with Operators Studio. Venomics builds a molecular dataset of animal venoms, the Venom Atlas, and uses AI and lab screening to look for drug candidates. Indian Startup News describes it as spun out of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), where founder Kartik Sunagar is an associate professor. The money goes into the Venom Atlas, screening, hiring and validating its most promising molecules.
• ArrayPatch Ltd, Cork: €3.2M seed, closed in two parts. The first €1.6M was announced in February, led by Lakeside Capital. The second €1.6M was announced on 5 November and co-led by WakeUp Capital. Investors named include Lakeside Capital, DeepIE Ventures, Enterprise Ireland and The Boole Investment Syndicate. ArrayPatch spun out of University College Cork. It says its dissolving microneedle patches are made entirely from the medicine being delivered. The money moves its obesity and diabetes programme toward first-in-human studies.
• Lotus Material, Incheon: about $1.7M from two funds managed by Vine Ventures, according to Dealroom. Its headline says $1.5M, but the body gives $301.8K plus $1.38M, which adds up to about $1.68M. Lotus spun out of Inha University and was founded in 2023 by Inha materials professor Hyun Seung-gyun, who is its CEO. It develops a nanoporous silver material that bonds power semiconductor chips to their substrates. The company says it cuts bonding-layer thickness by about 65%.
• Human Physical Intelligence, Kitakyushu: a loan of 10M yen from Japan Finance Corporation, through its Yahata branch, under its new business and startup support loan. It is a loan, not a funding round. The company, a spin-out of Kyushu Institute of Technology, was founded in May 2026 and develops assist suits and physical AI, with a focus on care settings.

Four countries, four universities. Three are investor-backed rounds and one is a loan.