Daily deal net: July 30, 2020

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 Coral Capital (then 500 Startups Japan) in late 2018.
Volograms, an Ireland-based hologram display technology spinout of Trinity College Dublin, has picked up €1.5m ($1.8m) in a round featuring University Bridge Fund, the spinout-focused investment vehicle also backed by University College Dublin and managed by Atlantic Bridge. The round was led by Sure Valley Ventures and also included enterprise support agency Enterprise Ireland. Founded in 2018, Volograms has devised a technology enabling the capture of volumetric holograms from mobile devices to be used as content in virtual or augmented reality applications. The funding will help scale its platform and team. Volograms previously obtained $710,000 in a 2018 seed round led by University Bridge Fund, and has also been supported by Enterprise Ireland previously.
TrekIT Health, a US-based electronic health record visualisation and workflow software spinout of Penn Medicine,  closed a $1m seed round yesterday backed by commercialisation firm IP Group, according to FinSMEs. The round was led by Tech Council Ventures, with further commitments from regional seed fund  Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern, Boston Millennia Partners’ Founders Fund, Front Row Fund, DreamIT Health and undisclosed additional investors. TrekIT Health’s cloud-based software enables clinicians to coordinate patient care based on information from their electronic health records. IP Group, Ben Franklin Technology and DreamIT have all invested previously.
CyAmast, an Australia-based internet-of-things cybersecurity technology spinout of University of New South Wales Sydney, has collected A$1.3m ($930,000) of funding from commercialisation firm IP Group, Mirage reported on Tuesday. CyAmast has created artificial intelligence-equipped software that safeguards internet-of-things devices from hacking by identifying when malware has deviated the device’s typical operating behaviours, as established by the original equipment manufacturer.
CNote, a US-based impact investment instrument platform, yesterday raised $25,000 from Tuck Social Venture Fund, the impact venturing vehicle for Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business. The funding forms part of a seed round led by Artemis Fund, a venture fund managed by women. CNoteoffers a fixed-income investment asset dubbed Community Development Financial Institutes (CDFIs) sanctioned by US market regulator Securities and Exchange Commission to finance community developments such as affordable housing and small business loans.
Spain-based spinout Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech was officially unveiled yesterday to commercialise quantum technologies invented at University of Barcelona and research centres Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) and Institute for High Energy Physics (IFAE). Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech will progress both hardware and software with the aim of building viable quantum computers that perform calculations which remain intractable even with the world’s fastest supercomputers. The spinout will start out focused on quantum algorithms but is also exploring design and manufacturing of quantum processing chips, seeking to differentiate itself using a technique called adiabatic quantum computing which it claims will unlock quantum-driven applications earlier in the development process. Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech’s founding team is led by José Ignacio Latorre, a professor at University of Barcelona’s Faculty of Physics, and includes Pol Forn Díaz from IFAE along with BSC’s Artur Garcia.
Aiwell, a Japan-based artificial intelligence-equipped proteomics technology developer spun out of Tokyo Institute of Technology, has raised an undisclosed amount of series A funding from private investor Takafumi Kaya. The funding will be used to promote the technology, which can identify the onset of various diseases by analysing the blood protein image data with artificial intelligence.
– Additional reporting by Liwen-Edison Fu