Kim Armor at Comcast Ventures showed why she was ranked so highly (#1) in the GCV Emerging Leader awards at the end of January after including Alphabet’s GV and Salesforce Ventures in an initial discussion last week on the Coronavirus and how it might impact their units and the broader industry.
Month: March 2020
Airbnb addresses funding options
The Alphabet-backed online accommodation platform is reportedly speaking to investors about new funding despite the coronavirus effect.
OneWeb examines bankruptcy possibilities
The satellite internet system developer is having cashflow issues having previously secured more than $3.4bn from a consortium of corporates including SoftBank and Qualcomm.
Design Therapeutics draws up $45m series A
SR One led a round disclosed by the genetic medicine developer, a spinout of University of Wisconsin-Madison, as it emerged from stealth.
Checkmarx ticks acquisition box
Salesforce is set to exit cybersecurity software producer Checkmarx after Hellman & Friedman agreed to buy a majority share at a $1.15bn valuation.
Lilium reaches higher altitude with $240m
The urban airborne vehicle developer closed more than $240m in funding, in a Tencent-led round reportedly valuing it at up to $1bn.
North Wearables seeks direction to buyers
North Wearables, the Intel and Amazon-backed AR glasses developer formerly known as Thalmic Labs, has raised $170m over eight years but could run out of cash within four months.
Nurix nabs $120m
Celgene-backed Nurix Therapeutics will use the capital to advance two protein modulation-based immuno-oncology drug candidates toward clinical trials.
Alibaba Pictures frames Yinhekuyu purchase
Alibaba Pictures is investing $56.5m for 60% of the Yinhekuyu’s shareholding, its sister company Youku already having taken a 20% stake.
Dating.com commits $50m to meeting startups
The online dating group intends to invest up to $5m at seed to series B stage through a strategic fund that has already made its first deal.
Analysis: StackPath takes $216m
Juniper Networks and Cox have backed a sizeable series B round for edge and cloud computing tech developer StackPath.
Corporate venturing deal net: 16-20 March 2020
Each Friday the Global Corporate Venturing Deal Net rounds up the week’s smaller deals and tracks the emerging companies accessing corporate funds.
DuPont Ventures’ closure a signal for a new option
GE Ventures was the canary in the coal mine last year.
Vision Fund vies for $10bn
SoftBank is in talks for $5bn that it will match itself, to support Vision Fund portfolio companies and possibly opportunistic acquisitions.