Ventures ruffles a few university feathers with partnership

 Ventures ruffles a few university feathers with partnership

 

  Transfer Accelerator program, a partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense," Wasabi said in a press release. It also mentioned partnering with Startup Tucson and Innovate UA.

But ASU and UA officials said they have no such contracts with Wasabi Ventures.

"There is no partnership with ASU," said Charlie Lewis, vice president of venture development at Arizona Technology Enterprises, the technology transfer arm of ASU.

He said he can't comment on the DOD arrangement.

"They are doing some contract work — that is true — through the DOD project," Lewis said. "But I can't comment on anything relative to how it's going. But there is no formal relationship with the university in any way, shape or form from a partnering standpoint or anything like that

We're teaching a class for him tonight, but we don't have an official contract with UA," Kuegler said. "That may change in the next six months. We're talking to folks over there. Our relationship is directly with Justin."

Wasabi's new office will be at Deskhub, a co-working space at 4900 N. Scottsdale Road in Scottsdale. The VC is hosting a launch party at Deskhub on June 4, from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., where Kuegler will announce plans to form a cohort in Phoenix this summer.

The San Mateo, California-based company also has offices in greater Boston and Baltimore.