Baltimore Money Moves: Goucher College gets $10M for science center extension

You can find some of the region’s top deals from last quarter by referring to the Q3 Venture Monitor report, released last week. But here are a few more Money Moves in the Baltimore area that you should know about:

Big alum money for Goucher

Goucher College has received a $10 million donation from alumna Judy C. Lewent and her husband, Mark Shapiro. According to the Baltimore Business Journal, the contribution is the largest gift ever made to Goucher by a living alum. It will support construction of the school’s Science Innovation Center, an expansion project linked to Goucher’s existing Hoffberger Science Center.

Biotech companies log major raises

Gene editing company Hunterian Medicine, located in the LifeBridge Health BioIncubator at Sinai Hospital, has secured $4,595,000, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing.

Another SEC filing also noted that 2023 RealLIST Startup Backpack Healthcare secured $1.55 million in an ongoing early series of funding rounds. CEO Hafeezah Muhammad chose to keep the total funds raised undisclosed, according to an email to Technical.ly, citing accuracy concerns. However, she did share the list of investors for the company’s Pre-A round financing, as well as plans to seek Series A funding in Q1 2024. The investors for their Pre-A round include Rethink Education (Rethink Capital’s parent company), Lockstep Ventures, Portland Seed Fund, Genius Guild, BVCC and RareBreed Ventures. The funding will be used to expand the Elkbridge-based startup’s self-care app to all 50 states and strengthen its AI infrastructure. Backpack Healthcare also recently welcomed Prashanth Brahmandam, the former head of data of Meta, as its chief technology officer.

Over $4 million for a game designer’s studio

According to another SEC Form D filing, Hunt Valley-based Midsummer Studios raised just under $4.25 million. The filing lists Jake Solomon, who reports identified as a game designer who contributed to the science fiction video game franchise “XCOM” and “Marvel’s Midnight Suns,” as an executive. He responded to Technical.ly’s inquiry about the raise by saying he’d be willing to discuss more come next year.

A half-million in carbon removal purchases for decarbonization company

EDAC Labs, a spinout from Chao Wang’s lab at Johns Hopkins University School of Engineering, has been selected by Frontier for its latest round of carbon removal purchases. This carbon removal purchase, worth $500,000, reflects EDAC Labs’ mission to provide electrochemical production of acid and base to decarbonize the world. EDAC Labs is one of 12 companies out of 132 applicants, chosen for this opportunity.

More Money Moves

• Centri Tech Foundation’s Social Justice Innovation Awards, in collaboration with Morgan Stanley, recognized Clymb CEO Ashley Williams as one of six winners. Ashey Williams will receive $250,000 in funding and tailored support to expedite and expand her technology-driven innovations at the youth mental wellness-focused startup.
• The Global Air Drone Academy, an initiative aimed at fostering STEM education and helping students pursue career goals through programming, has received a $150,000 grant from the Baltimore City Youth Fund (BCYF)\. According to a LinkedIn post by cofounder Austin Brown, the money will support the launch of its Junior Drone Pilot program.
• AT&T has donated $25,000 to the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY) to bolster its CTY Scholars Program. CTY provides scholarships and academic guidance to high school students who are both academically gifted and come from low-income or underrepresented backgrounds.
• Natáur, a company working to provide bio-based solutions for nutrient production, received a $200,000 investment from TEDCO’s Social Impact Fund.
• Biotechnology company Emit Imaging has successfully raised $525,000 in an ongoing funding round. The company could not be immediately reached on plans for the funds.