Funding
US-based cancer treatment developer BioTheryX has raised $92m in a series E round backed by Alexandria Venture Investment, the investment arm of life sciences real estate trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities. The round was led by Farallon Capital Management, with participation from additional investors Avidity Partners, Deep Track Capital, Irving Investors, Janus Henderson Investors, Lumira Ventures, Point72, Rock Springs Capital, Surveyor Capital, Tekla Capital Management, Wedbush Healthcare Partners and unnamed existing backers. BioTheryX raised $35m in a series D round led by MSD Partners in July 2020. Regulatory filings show it had earlier raised at least $1.6m, but further details have not emerged.
Immuta, the US-based developer of an automated data governance platform, has raised $90m in a series D round backed by Intel Capital, Citi Ventures, Dell Technologies Capital, Okta Ventures and Wipro Ventures, respective vehicles for chipmaker Intel, bank Citi, computer manufacturer Dell, identity management technology developer Okta and IT services firm Wipro. The round also included NGP Capital, Greenspring Associates, March Capital, Ten Eleven Ventures and DFJ Growth. Immuta has now raised $169m overall. Intel Capital, Citi Ventures and Dell Technologies Capital were among the backers of a $40m series C round in June 2020.
Pitch, a Germany-based collaborative presentation platform backed by enterprise software producer Slack, has secured an $85m series B round co-led by Lakestar and Tiger Global, with participation from Index Ventures and Thrive Capital. Thrive Capital led a $30m investment in October 2019 that was also billed as a series B, however, Pitch has deleted the release from its website and it is unclear how the deal relates to its $85m announcement. Pitch previously raised $19m in a series A round backed by Slack, through its Slack Fund, in October 2018. The round was co-led by Index Ventures and BlueYard, and also included assorted angel investors. BlueYard had injected $3.7m in April 2018.
Indonesia-based agritech developer TaniHub has obtained $65.5m in its series B round led by MDI Ventures, the corporate VC arm of telecoms firm Telkom Indonesia, according to Tech in Asia. The round also included industrials group Siam Cement’s AddVentures as well as BRI Ventures and UOB Venture Management on behalf of financial services firms Bank BRI and United Overseas Bank, respectively. Flourish Ventures, Intudo Ventures, Openspace Ventures, Tenaya Capital and Vertex Ventures filled out the round. TaniHub raised $17m in a series A-plus round co-led by Openspace Ventures and Intudo Ventures in April 2020. In May 2019, TaniHub attracted $10m in series A financing led by Openspace, with participation from Intudo Ventures, Golden Gate Ventures and DFS Lab. It had raised “millions of dollars” in a seed round in April 2018 from Alpha JWC Ventures and angel investors.
US-based agriculture technology provider TerViva has pocketed $54m in funding led by non-profit Astera Institute, with participation from agricultural land manager Evans Properties, Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust and private investors. The company expects to raise an additional $24m in equity and debt this quarter. Evans Properties helped TerViva raise $20m in series D financing in 2019.
ProducePay, a US-based agricultural finance and technology provider backed by financial services firm Rabobank, has raised $43m in a series C round co-led by G2VP, International Finance Corporation and Inter-American Development Bank’s IDB Invest. The round also included Anterra Capital, Coventure, Astanor Ventures, IGNIA and Finistere. Rabobank’s Rabo Frontier Ventures was a backer of ProducePay’s $14m series B round in 2018.
Heru, a US-based developer of wearable artificial intelligence-powered vision diagnostics and augmentation software, has closed a $30m series A round backed by telecoms group SoftBank’s SoftBank Ventures Opportunity Fund. The round was led by D1 Capital Partners and also included Krillion Ventures and private investors. Heru was spun out of the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at University of Miami. It secured $2.7m in a seed round from unnamed backers in December 2020.
China-based surgical robot developer Jianjia Robot has completed a series C round worth hundreds of millions of Chinese yuan (RMB100m = $15.5m) from investors including telecoms group SoftBank’s Softbank China Venture Capital and Fosun Pharma, the healthcare products arm of conglomerate Fosun, according to China Money Network. The round was led by Lyfe Capital and featured GL Ventures. Fosun Pharma and GL Ventures co-led a $14.6m series B round in September 2020, when Baidu Ventures, a corporate venturing subsidiary of internet group Baidu, also invested.
OneNav, a US-based developer of a global positioning system chip developer for mobile devices, has completed a $21m series B round led by GV, an investment arm of conglomerate Alphabet, with participation from Norwest Venture Partners and GSR Ventures. It has now raised $33m in funding altogether, it said, although it does not appear to have confirmed details about earlier rounds.
US-based hot cloud storage provider Wasabi has added $25m to its series C round, bringing the round’s total to $137m. The extension was led by Prosperity7 Ventures, a fund for oil and gas producer Saudi Aramco’s corporate venturing arm Aramco Ventures. The second tranche also included Western Digital Capital on behalf of storage device producer Western Digital. Wasabi had collected $112m in a first series C tranche led by investment and financial services firm Fidelity last month. Mobile network operator NTT Docomo’s corporate venturing division, NTT Docomo Ventures, had supplied an undisclosed sum in 2019.
US-based business-to-business insurance platform Boost Insurance has completed a $20m series B round backed by an undisclosed reinsurance company. The round was led by RRE Ventures and included Fin VC, Gaingels, Hack VC, Greycroft, Coatue Management and Conversion Capital. Boost has now secured $37m altogether. Coatue and Greycroft co-led a $14m series A round in February 2020, when Tusk Venture Partners, Conversion Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, IA Capital and private investor Glenn Hubbard also participated. Boost picked up $3m from reinsurance providers State National Companies and Nephila in 2017 in a round led by Norwest, with additional participation from IA Capital and Greycroft.
India-based electric vehicle charging technology developer Magenta EV Solutions has secured $15m in series A financing from private backer Kiran Patel, according to the Economic Times. Magenta secured an undisclosed amount of seed financing from oil company Hindustan Petroleum in 2018, before securing an unspecified amount of funding from JITO Angel Network and LetsVenture in 2020.
India-based rocket manufacturer Skyroot Aerospace has raised $11m in a series A round backed by returning investor defence company Solar Group, according to Mint. The round was co-led by private investors Anil Kumar Chalamalasetty and Mahesh Kolli, and also featured Graph Ventures, WorldQuant Ventures and additional angel investors. Skyroot secured $1.5m in July 2018 from unnamed backers and Solar supplied $2.5m in January 2020.
M12, the corporate venturing arm of software producer Microsoft, has invested $6.25m of additional series A financing in NextBillion, a Singapore-based developer of geospatial mapping technology. NextBillion previously secured $7m in an initial series A tranche co-led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Falcon Edge Capital in July 2020, when assorted angel investors also participated.
Wysa, a US-based artificial intelligence-powered mental health platform, has obtained $5.5m in a series A round led by W Health Ventures, with participation from Google Assistant Investment programme, on behalf of conglomerate Alphabet’s internet subsidiary Google. The round also featured Pi Ventures and Kae Capital. Reports about Google’s investment first emerged in March this year, but the amount and other investors were only disclosed this week.
US-based non-fungible token technology developer Unique Network has procured $4.3m in a funding round featuring game developer Animoca Brands. The round was led by Outlier Ventures and also included DFG and unnamed others.
Engineering and construction firm Larsen & Toubro has invested $2.5m in series A funding in US-based remote assistance application provider Help Lightning. The corporate will hold a 6.35% stake in the company. Resolve Growth Partners previously injected $8m of funding into the company in August 2020. Help Lightning is based on research by Bart Guthrie, a neurosurgeon at University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Tibles, a US-based marketplace for non-fungible tokens of pop culture collectables, has attracted $1.14m in a seed round led by blockchain technology developer Dapper Labs. Tibles is looking to build its offering atop Dapper’s blockchain called Flow.
Local services portal operator Meituan-Dianping has led a series C round of undisclosed for China-based industrial robotics technology developer Mech-Mind Robotics. Sequoia Capital China and Source Code Capital also took part in the round which has increased Mech-Minds’ total funding to $100m. Mech-Mind raised $15.2m in series B-plus funding from Source Code Capital and Sequoia Capital China in November 2020. Intel Capital, a corporate venturing unit for semiconductor technology producer Intel, provided an undisclosed amount of funding for the company in August 2019.
India-based no-code information management platform Keito Tech has raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from outsourcing services provider SumaSoft, LetsVenture and private investors.
– Additional reporting by Jordan Williams
