Funding
GV, a corporate venturing subsidiary of internet and technology group Alphabet, led a $72m series B round on Wednesday for Brightline, the US-based creator of a behavioural health platform designed for children. The round included healthcare services firm Optum’s investment arm, Optum Ventures, as well as health insurers Blue Shield of California and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, 7wireVentures, Gaingels, Oak HC/FT, Threshold Ventures, SemperVirens VC and City Light Capital. Brightline had raised $25m as of a $20m series A round in August 2020 featuring Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Blue Shield of California and healthcare provider Boston Children’s Hospital.
US-headquartered online lending platform developer Splash Financial raised $44.3m in series B funding yesterday from investors including Cuna Mutual, Citi Ventures and Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, on behalf of mutual insurer Cuna Mutual and financial services firms Citi and Northwestern Mutual. The round was filled out by Detroit Venture Partners, Firebolt Ventures and partners of DST Global, and it followed $4.3m in seed capital from CMFG Ventures and Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures in mid-2019 and $12.3m in a series A round co-led by the same investors in May 2020.
Yeasen Biotechnology, a China-based developer of life sciences enzyme technology, has completed a RMB250m ($38.9m) series B round led by Legend Capital, the venture capital firm formed by conglomerate Legend Holdings, DealStreetAsia reported yesterday. Life science services provider Xinsheng Pharmaceutical also took part in the round, as did Shanghai Hoaxing Investment, Step Fund, Anhui Tanzhen Investment Management and Hetai Ventures – potentially a subsidiary for digital life insurer HeTai. The last three were described as existing investors, though Yeasen has not disclosed details of earlier funding.
Fiddler AI, a US-headquartered developer of artificial intelligence software technology, secured $32m yesterday in a series B round featuring Bloomberg Beta, the VC firm sponsored by media group Bloomberg, as well as e-commerce firm Amazon’s Alexa Fund and aerospace manufacturer Lockheed Martin. Growth equity firm Insight Partners led the round, which included Lightspeed Venture Partners, Lux Capital and Haystack Ventures, and which followed $800,000 from Lockheed Martin in August 2020 and an undisclosed amount from Alexa Fund the same month. Fiddler had raised a total of $13.2m from Bloomberg Beta, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Haystack Ventures and Lux Capital as of September 2019.
Germany-based open banking platform developer Finleap Connect received €22m ($26.4m) yesterday in a series A round led by financial services provider SBI through corporate venturing unit SBI Investment. The round also featured financial technology ecosystem Finleap and Claret Capital – both billed as existing backers – in addition to angel investor Ilavska Vuillermoz Capital.
Pharmaceutical firm and Boehringer Ingelheim co-led a $24m series A round for Nuevocor, a Singapore-based developer of gene therapies for a cardiovascular disease known as cardiomyopathy, yesterday, through subsidiary Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund. The round was co-led by VC firm EVX Ventures and included Xora Innovation and the state-owned EDBI and Seeds Capital as well as undisclosed other investors.
US-headquartered blockchain intelligence provider TRM Labs completed a $14m series A round featuring PayPal Ventures and Salesforce Ventures, subsidiaries of digital payment processor PayPal and enterprise software producer Salesforce respectively. The round was led by VC firm Bessemer Venture Partners and also backed by Initialized Capital, Jump Capital, Operator Partners, Blockchain Capital, Y Combinator, Alumni Ventures Group, The MBA Fund, Tapas Capital, SGH Capital and unnamed executives from internet technology provider Google. It followed a $4.2m round in late 2019 featuring PayPal Ventures that took TRM’s total funding to $5.9m.
SynFutures, the Singapore-based operator of a decentralised derivatives exchange, raised $14m yesterday in a series A round backed by crypto market maker Wintermute, cryptocurrency derivatives exchange Bybit and crypto trading firm Kronos. The round was led by Polychain Capital and included Framework Ventures, Pantera Capital, CMS Holdings and IOSG Ventures, and it came in the wake of a $1.4m seed round featuring Standard Crypto and Dragonfly Capital in January this year.
Law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati took part in an $11m series A round for Lexion, the US-based creator of a smart contract management system, yesterday. VC firm Khosla Ventures led the round, which also featured Madrona Venture Group and which was preceded by a $4.2m seed round co-led by Wilson Sonsini and Madrona Venture Group in mid-2019.
Singapore-based trade finance network operator Contour completed a series A-plus round of undisclosed size yesterday that included financial services firms ING, Bangkok Bank, BNP Paribas, Citi, CTBC Bank, HSBC, Standard Chartered SEB and SMBC and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. The company, which had previously raised an undisclosed amount from Standard Chartered in January 2020, also named blockchain software provider R3, consulting firm Bain & Company and blockchain technology developer CryptoBLK as investors this week.
InnerPlant, a US-based developer of organic plant sensors, disclosed a total of $5.65m in funding yesterday, garnered from a pre-seed and seed round led by MS&AD Ventures, a corporate venturing subsidiary of insurance group MS&AD. The corporate was joined by VC firms Bee Partners and UpWest in addition to TAU Ventures, an investment vehicle for Tel Aviv University.
Eqtable, the US-headquartered creator of a data software platform for human resources, has secured $2.7m in a seed round that included telecommunications and internet group SoftBank’s SB Opportunity Fund, TechCrunch reported yesterday. VC firm Initialized Capital led the round, which was also backed by RS Ventures, the VC arm of investment adviser Rush Street Capital.
Telecoms firm KDDI’s Open Innovation Fund II invested an undisclosed amount in UK-based public transport information provider WhereIsMyTransport yesterday. The company had raised $22m earlier this month in a series A round featuring Naspers Foundry, a subsidiary of e-commerce and media group Naspers, as well as automotive manufacturer Toyota’s trading arm, Toyota Tsusho, internet technology provider Google and financial services firms SBI and Nedbank, the former through its SBI Investment unit, bringing its overall funding to $34.5m.
M&A
On-demand consumer product supplier Gopuff agreed yesterday to purchase US-based mobility software provider RideOS in a deal sized at $115m according to TechCrunch that will allow industrial technology manufacturer Siemens and engineering firm ST to exit. They had backed a $25m series B round for RideOS through corporate venturing units Next47 and ST Engineering Ventures together with venture capital firm Sequoia Capital in 2018, following a $9m series A led by Sequoia that also featured Graph Ventures and SV Angel.
Media and e-commerce group Naspers exited US-based agricultural data software provider FarmLogs on Wednesday in a purchase of undisclosed size by agriculture management platform developer Bushel. Naspers led its $22m series C round in 2017 through subsidiary Naspers Ventures, investing alongside existing backers Drive Capital, Huron River Ventures, Hyde Park Venture Partners, SV Angel and Sam Altman to push the company’s overall funding to $37m.
Automotive manufacturer Ford Motor Company agreed yesterday to acquire Electriphi, a US-headquartered vehicle charging software developer backed by gas utility Tokyo Gas, for an undisclosed sum. Tokyo Gas took part in the company’s $3.5m seed round in February 2020 through innovation hub Acario Innovation, investing alongside Wireframe Ventures, Urban Innovation Fund, Blackhorn Ventures and Lemnos Labs.
