Another busy spree of corporate venturing-linked deal-making in February has seen more than $15bn invested globally in deals since the beginning of the year. During February we tracked 162 corporate-venturing backed investments worth $5bn, which compared to 209 investments tracked in January worth $10.5bn. In February we also tracked seven exits and three initial public offerings (IPOs) worth $2.3bn, which was up from six exits and three IPOs worth $898.4m in February.
The largest investment was e-commerce company Alibaba investing $590m in China-based smartphone manufacturer Meizu to take a minority stake.
The second largest deal was corporate-backed incubator and venture capital Rocket Internet paying €496m ($568m) for a 30% stake in Germany-based online food ordering service Delivery Hero. The funding consisted of a $328m equity investment in Delivery Hero, with the rest allocated to a secondary share purchase. Tengelmann Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of retail chain Tengelmann, is an investor in Delivery Hero.
Pinterest, the US-based social networking company backed by e-commerce company Rakuten, has reportedly entered talks over a $500m series G round.
Ant Financial Services, the online payment affiliate of e-commerce company Alibaba, acquired a 25% share of India-based mobile payment company One97 Communications. China-based Ant, better known as Alipay, has not disclosed how much it paid for the stake, but a source told Reuters that its investment was upwards of $500m.
Social Finance (SoFi), a US-based alternative loans company backed by social networking platform Renren, raised $200m in a series D round led by investment advisor Third Point.
US-based e-commerce company Jet raised $140m in a series B round backed by Google Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of internet company Google.
US-based content discovery platform Taboola closed a $117m series E round which included media company Advance Publications, internet company Yahoo Japan, cable operator Comcast and consumer goods provider Groupe Arnault.
Rocket Internet pumped $113.7m into Germany-based food delivery service HelloFresh at a $714m valuation, boosting its stake from 37.4% to 51.7% and taking a majority stake in the process. Past investors include Vorwerk Direct Selling Ventures, the investment arm of household goods and cosmetics producer Vorwerk.
Social networking platform Renren has led a $110m series D round for China-based car trading platform Cheyipai. Internet company Tencent also participated in the round.
China-based online education platform HuJiang also received $100m from search engine Baidu.
The largest exit was biopharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb buying US-based cancer treatment developer Flexus Biosciences, backed by Celgene, in a deal that could be worth up to $1.25bn.
Pharmaceutical firms Novartis and Takeda both exited UK-based Alzheimer’s disease drug developer Heptares Therapeutics after it was acquired by Sosei Group in a deal worth up to $400m.
Poxel, a France-based spin-out of pharmaceutical company Merck Serono, has raised €139.3m ($158.8m) from its initial public offering, after its underwriters took up most of an over-allotment option.
US-based genetic test developer Invitae Corporation closed its initial public offering at $116.8m. Invitae was a spin-off of diagnostic testing company Genomic Health.
Switzerland-based vaccine developer GlycoVaxyn was acquired by pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for $212m.
GSK and GlycoVaxyn previously signed an agreement to research anti-bacterial vaccines in 2012 in a deal which also had GSK make an equity investment of undisclosed size in GlycoVaxyn.