Funding
China-headquartered crypto financial services provider Babel Finance closed a $40m series A round yesterday featuring both media group Bertelsmann and its BAI Capital vehicle. Zoo Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Dragonfly Capital and Tiger Global Management also participated in the round, which followed an undisclosed amount of pre-series A funding from Dragonfly Capital and Parallel Ventures in March 2020.
Blind, the US-based creator of an anonymous online community for employees, raised $37m yesterday in a series C round backed by Cisco Investments, a subsidiary of networking technology provider Cisco. The round was led by Mainstreet Investment and included Pavilion Capital and existing investors Storm Ventures and DCM Ventures. Blind had previously secured $6m in a 2017 series B round featuring DCM Ventures, Mirae Asset Ventures, ID Ventures and AJU IB Investment, two years after securing an undisclosed amount from DCM and Global Brain.
UK-based laundry detergent provider Smol has received $34m in series B financing from investors including GV, an early-stage investment vehicle for internet and technology conglomerate Alphabet, The Times reported on Sunday. Investment and financial services group Fidelity’s Eight Roads Ventures unit led the round, which also featured Balderton Capital, Latitude and Jam Jar Investments. It came in the wake of $9.8m in series A funding from Balderton Capital and JamJar Investments in July 2020.
Echo Health Ventures, the venture capital firm formed by healthcare provider Cambia Health Solutions and investment firm Mosaic Health Solutions, led a $20m series B round for US-based cardiac care provider Heartbeat Health yesterday. It was joined by Optum Ventures, the investment arm of health services firm Optum, as well as DaVita Venture Group and existing investors .406 Ventures, Kindred Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, Designer Fund and Max Ventures. Heartbeat said it has now raised over $30m, $8.2m coming in an Optum-backed series A round in March 2020.
UK-based digital commerce services provider Astound Commerce agreed last week to raise an undisclosed amount from Salesforce Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of enterprise software producer Salesforce, and private equity firm RLH Equity Partners, it disclosed today. RLH’s past investments include Salesforce-focused companies Bluewolf and Shift 7 Digital.
US-based vascular biology technology developer Therini Bio closed a $17m seed round yesterday co-led by MRL Ventures and Sanofi Ventures, on behalf of pharmaceutical firms Merck & Co and Sanofi, with healthcare fund manager SV Health Investors’ Impact Medicine Fund. The round also featured Dementia Discovery Fund, Dolby Family Ventures, Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, all of which backed the round’s $9.35m first tranche in 2020, as well as Foundation for a Better World.
Susquehanna Growth Equity (SGE), a vehicle for quantitative trading firm Susquehanna International Group, made a ‘significant’ investment in US-based amateur sports streaming service LiveBarn yesterday. SGE’s Scott Feldman, Jeff Steinberg, Aneesha Raghunathan and Dennis Kim are taking director or observer roles on the company’s board of directors in connection with the transaction.
Thrilling, the US-based, black and Asian-owned operator of an online second-hand fashion boutique, completed an $8.5m series A round last month that included DLA Piper Venture, a subsidiary of law firm DLA Piper, AfroTech reported last week. Prelude Ventures led the round, which also featured Defy, Congruent Ventures, Urban Us, Phoenix Rising and Closed Loop Partners’ Ventures Group. The company had previously raised $2.3m from unnamed investors in August 2019.
Just Women’s Sports, the US-headquartered owner of an online streaming platform for women’s sports, secured $3.5m yesterday in a seed round featuring Drive by DraftKings, the VC firm co-founded by daily fantasy sports operator DraftKings. VC firm Will Ventures led the round, which included Thirty Five Ventures, Ovo Fund, Supernode Global and sportswomen Elena Delle Donne, Hilary Knight, Sam Mewis, Kelley O’Hara and Arike Ogunbowale.
Caplight, the US-based developer of an offering which allows investors to short companies’ stock before they have gone public, has raised $1.7m in a pre-seed round that included Susquehanna Private Equity Investments, part of quantitative trading firm Susquehanna International Group, TechCrunch reported today. Fin VC led the round, which also featured Clocktower Ventures and Dash Fund.
Law firm IndusLaw has participated in a Rs 100m ($1.4m) funding round for RuleZero, the India-based creator of a software platform that automatically manages the ownership of equity stakes in startups, the Economic Times reported yesterday. Rainmatter Capital, Reddy Futures and angel investor Kris Gopalakrishnan filled out the round.
Thailand-based blockchain and crypto asset technology developer Atato has received $1m in seed financing from investors including Zipmex Asia, a subsidiary of digital asset exchange operator Zipmex, e27 reported yesterday. VC firm SOSC also participated in the round, as did undisclosed angel investors, and the cash will go to product development, recruitment, security and compliance activities.
Digital consulting firm SecretLab paid $1m for a 20% stake in AmVentureX, a US-based creator of direct-to-consumer in-vitro diagnostic products, yesterday. The capital will go to expanding the latter company’s KetoCoach and FastCoach tests.
M&A
Smart meter technology producer Geo has acquired UK-based Onzo, an energy data analytics provider that has counted energy utilities SSE and Eneco as investors, for an undisclosed sum. Eneco invested an undisclosed amount in Onzo in 2017, following $4m from SSE and Sigma Capital Group in 2008, $1.7m from West Coast Capital and Cipio Partners in June 2014 and $6.3m from the latter two investors six months later.
