South African media and ecommerce company Naspers has closed down five, niche ecommerce businesses, with plans to build out its Kalahari online shopping platform.
Month: February 2014
Miner questions telcos’ corporate venturing expectations
Rich Miner, Google Ventures general partner, was speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona alongside telco executives. Miner said that corporate venturing would only have an impact “if the organisation itself decides it wants to be disruptive to itself.”. In response, Edgar Hardless CEO of SingTel Innov8, the corporate venturing division of telecom company… Continue reading Miner questions telcos’ corporate venturing expectations
Van Dijk in frame as Naspers CEO
“In view of our strong development focus on ecommerce, the board believes that Bob has the skills to lead us into the next phase of our growth,” said Ton Vosloo, Naspers chair. Bekker will stand down from the Naspers board for a year, during which time he “intends to travel widely and research where the… Continue reading Van Dijk in frame as Naspers CEO
Capital One Labs moves into San Francisco
Capital One bank opens its third and latest startup design laboratory in San Francisco.
Orange Fab Asia chooses first eight
The Japanese accelerator programme of France-based telecommunications company Orange has selected 8 startup entrants.
Wayra UnLtd looks for second class
Academy for UK-based, early stage digital social ventures calls for applications to join its second class of startups.
17u sails off with $82.5m
Holiday makers and business travellers from China will have more destinations and offers to choose from now that online travel agency, 17u (also known as TongCheng) has raised $82.5m in expansion capital. The corporate venturing unit of Tencent has taken part in the series C round, as has Oriza Holdings and Boyu Capital.
All fun and games in $21.5m Joyme.com deal
Fosun Venture Capital Investment, the corporate venturing unit of Chinese industrial conglomerate Fusun Group, has led a $21.5m series B round of funding for game portal operator, Joyme.com. Fosun is no stranger to the gaming world, having already invested in gaming sites Perfect World and LineKong.
Fosun sees bright future in Uniquedu
The corporate venturing unit of China-based conglomerate Fosun Venture Capital Investment has invested $16m in a series A round of funding of Uniquedu. The target company is a China-based software education developer that specialises in training software development for professionals and project management in the areas of mobile Internet, cloud computing and Internet marketing. News… Continue reading Fosun sees bright future in Uniquedu
Smart Education music to CyberAgent’s ears
Smart Education, a children’s education software application company from Japan, has raised $5.4m from the corporate venturing unit of CyberAgent and Infinity Ventures. The company is behind the music app “Rhythm Book” for smartphones and tablets. The company raised the capital to launch new apps and expand its global operations and sales. At the time… Continue reading Smart Education music to CyberAgent’s ears
TutorGroup makes the grade in $100m series B round
The corporate venturing unit of Chinese e-trader Alibaba Group, Temasek and Qiming Venture Partners have invested in a $100m series B round of funding for a China-based tutoring company. The target company, TutorGroup, forecasts the adult English language-learning segment alone within China is growing at 25% annually, and will grow to more than US$21bn by 2016.
Solum switches from soil to cloud
Granular, a US-based provider of a cloud software and analytics platform for farmers, founded in 2009 as Solum, has raised $4.2m from a consortium including corporate venturing unit Google Ventures, following the sale of its Solum brand name and soil-testing service to Monsanto subsidiary The Climate Corporation. Google Ventures invested in Granular alongside venture capital… Continue reading Solum switches from soil to cloud
Cisco invests $6m in Badia Impact Fund
Cisco has invested $6m in the Jordan-focussed Badia Impact Fund, in its first close including investments from the European Investment Bank and Jordan’s King Abdullah Fund for Development.
EIE14
Scottish tech companies meet investors