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…
