Sector report: Fintech
Month: November 2019
Who cares about the ‘invention factories’?
November issue editorial by James Mawson, editor-in-chief
OLX and Frontier Car Group shake on $400m
Existing investor OLX returned to increase its stake in used car marketplace company Frontier Car Group, investing $400m through a primary and secondary transaction.
Visa pours capital into Interswitch
Visa is thought to have invested $200m in a deal officially valuing Africa-focused payments services company Interswitch at $1bn.
We Co moves out of The Wing
We Company will divest from The Wing, for which it had led a $32m series B round in 2017 and backed a $75m series C, and will also look to sell Meetup.
Makuake makes its way to TSE
CyberAgent-founded crowdfunding platform has applied for an initial public offering on the TSE Mothers Market that it expects will fetch it a $155m valuation.
Workato grits teeth for $70m series C
Software integration tool developer Workato has assembled $111m in total from an investor base which includes ServiceNow, Workday and Salesforce.
Arkuda acclaims $44m series A
Pfizer Ventures co-led the round for neurodegenerative disease medicine developer Arkuda Therapeutics, which aims to combat a certain form of dementia.
Alibaba’s EF Fund stirs up biotech interest
Alibaba’s nonprofit Hong Kong Entrepreneurs Fund will move into biotech, augmenting its existing portfolio focus on AI, fintech and smart cities.
Sinclair clasps Octopus in fresh funding round
Sinclair Digital joined an affiliate of MediaMath to back in-car interactive content provider Octopus Interactive, which is aiming to enhance its advertising technology.
Cainiao collects $3.3bn from Alibaba
Alibaba has increased its shareholding to 63%, having already acquired a majority stake in the logistics platform, also backed by Fosun and Intime Retail Group, two years ago.
HawkEye 360 takes series B to $85m
HawkEye 360 extended its series B round, already backed by Airbus and Esri, to at least $85m with a $15m contribution from family office Advance, which has also bough Allied Minds’ stake.
36Kr broadcasts $20m IPO
Ant Financial and Nikkei-backed 36Kr has raised just a fifth of its original IPO target and shares took another 10% hit on the first day of trading.
Martin promoted at Sky Ventures
Mike Martin is now head of investments at Sky Ventures, the latest in a series of personnel shuffles that has also seen James McClurg become director, investments and partnerships.