Saratoga, Calif.-based startup Mojo Vision Inc. has raised $51 million in a series B-1 financing led by existing investor New Enterprise Associates (NEA). The money will be used to advance development of the Mojo Lens, the company’s first-of-a-kind smart contact lens powered by augmented reality (AR) technology.

Temporary cardiac pacing is often required for hospitalized cardiac patients, particularly for increasingly common transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedures. Startup Atacor Medical Inc. has raised a $25 million series B round to back its development of a novel extracardiac temporary pacing system. Intriguingly led by an undisclosed corporate partner, the financing is slated to get the company through a U.S. and European pivotal trial, as well as regulatory review in those regions. The San Clemente, Calif.-based startup also aims to continue developing interim and permanent iterations of its system.

DUBLIN – Kurma Partners closed its third biotech fund, Kurma Biofund III, at €160 million (US$174 million), €10 million ahead of its initial target. The Paris-based fund will allocate the bulk of the capital to therapeutics firms, but it is also open to opportunistic investments in med tech, particularly in digital health applications and in biotech-med tech convergence, partner Peter Neubeck told BioWorld.

Baltimore-based Lifesprout Inc., a Johns Hopkins University startup, said it has closed a $28.5 million series A financing. It is planning to use the proceeds to support clinical development of therapeutic products from its Regenerative Matrix platform. Redmile Group LLC led the round, with new institutional investors Nexus Management LP, Emerald Development Managers LP, and the Abell Foundation also joining.

LONDON – Noscendo GmbH closed a series A round to finance the commercialization of its next generation DNA sequencing test for the fast diagnosis of bloodstream infections. At the same time, the company reported the start of operations at a new testing lab.

Cytovale Inc., a San Francisco-based medical technology company, has snagged an additional $3.83 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to conduct a pilot study of its Rapid Sepsis Diagnostic System for patients with potential respiratory infections, including SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus responsible for COVID-19. The patented technology, which can diagnose sepsis in less than 10 minutes, could speed up triaging and treatment of critically ill patients suspected of having the life-threatening condition.