Every day, Global University Venturing rounds up the smaller investments from across the university innovation ecosystem in its deal net.

Atsena Therapeutics, a US-based gene therapy developer, launched yesterday with an $8.2m funding round backed by University of Florida (UF). The round was led by Hatteras Venture Partners with the involvement of spinout-focused investment firm Osage University Partners and RD Fund, a vehicle for research charity Foundation Fighting Blindness, with additional participation from PBM Capital. Atsena Therapeutics is developing a gene therapy for GUCY2D-associated Leber congenital amaurosis, a genetic eye disease that causes blindness in children. The drug has been licensed from pharmaceutical firm Sanofi which originally licensed it from UF and is expected to begin the second cohort of ongoing phase 1/2 clinical testing in autumn 2020. AstrumU, a US-based education course appraisal software developer incubated at University of Kansas and Arizona State University, has attracted $7.6m in a round led by Kingdom Capital and featuring private investors Adam Warby and Court Lorenzini, GeekWire has reported. The round was filled out by KC Rise Fund and City Light Capital. Founded in 2017, AstrumU builds data-driven software products to help match college students with extracurricular activities that further their careers. The funding is intended to insulate AstrumU in the current economic climate, particularly as universities face budget cuts due to the pandemic. Filings state AstrumU had raised $2.1m in debt and other securities in 2018, from investors including University of Kansas and Arizona State University-run accelerator ASU ScaleU. Ignition Partners and Correlation Ventures have also backed the company previously. Altis Biosystems, a US-based stem cell drug discovery platform spun out of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has closed a $3.1m seed round led by a $1m commitment from VentureSouth, Triangle Business Journal reported on Tuesday. The round was backed by RTP Capital, Hatteras Venture Partners and unnamed affiliates of syndicates Atlanta Technology Angels and Central Texas Angel Network in Austin. Altis Biosystems is working on drugs based on a stem cell-based discovery platform called RepliGut that models intestinal stem cells for the purposes of microbiome research, disease modelling and screening. Altis Biosystems attracted $940,000 of equity funding in January 2020, with VentureSouth having supplied an undisclosed sum the previous year according to Upstate Business Journal. BluAge, a Japan-based operator of a real estate rental platform dubbed Canary, has raised a ¥300m ($2.9m) of funding from University of Tokyo’s Entrepreneur Supporter’s Club Incubation Fund, financial services firm Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation’s SMBC Venture Capital vehicle, angel investor network Angel Bridge and private investors. The company had secured $617,000 from…

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