Funding
Immutable, an Australia-based non-fungible token protocol developer, has raised $60m in a series B round backed by quantitative trading firm Alameda Research, CoinTelegraph has reported. The round was co-led by Bitkraft Ventures and King River Capital, with additional participation from VaynerFund. The money will allow Immutable to increase the headcount of its engineering and sales divisions, build more industry partnerships and scale its network. Immutable previously raised $15m in a series A round in 2019 led by Prosus Ventures (then known as Naspers Ventures), the investment arm of consumer internet group Prosus, with contributions from Digital’s EOS VC Fund and Apex Capital Partners.
US-based cryptocurrency wealth management platform Abra collected $55m in series C funding backed by American Express (Amex) Ventures and CMT Digital Ventures, respective corporate venturing units of payment processing firm American Express and trading firm CMT Group’s blockchain subsidiary CMT Digital. The round was co-led by Ignia and Blockchain Capital, while Kingsway Capital, Tiga Investments, Stellar Development Foundation, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Arbor Ventures, RRE Ventures, Kenetic Advisors and assorted private investors also participated. Abra has now raised more than $85m altogether, it said. Stellar Development Foundation supplied $5m in May 2020. Amex Ventures had joined manufacturing services provider Foxconn’s HCM International as well as Silver8 Capital, Ignia, Arbor Ventures, Jungle Ventures, Lehrer Hippeau Ventures and RRE Ventures for a $16m series B round in 2017. American Express had already injected an undisclosed sum in 2015.
Francis Medical, a US-based medical device company developing a water vapour ablation therapy for the treatment of prostate, kidney and bladder cancer, procured $55m in a series B round yesterday backed by medical device manufacturer Coloplast. Solas BioVentures led the round, which also attracted Arboretum Ventures, H2Oey Ventures and Tonkawa. Coloplast previously injected $4m in funding in September 2020. Francis Medical secured $18m in its series A round in 2018 backed by medical device producer Boston Scientific. Arboretum Ventures led that round, which also featured H2Oey Ventures and Tonkawa.
US-based infrastructure access platform StrongDM closed a $54m series B round backed by GV, an early-stage corporate venturing subsidiary of technology conglomerate Alphabet, and HearstLab, an investment unit focused on women entrepreneurs operated by publisher Hearst, yesterday. Tiger Global led the round, while Bloomberg Beta, the VC firm backed by media group Bloomberg, Sequoia Capital, True Ventures and Godfrey Sullivan also took part. Sequoia led a $17m series A round in October 2020, with contributions from Bloomberg Beta, HearstLab, Data Collective, SocialStarts, True Ventures, Laconia Capital Group and Jerry Neumann.
US-based smart work assistant developer Glean emerged from stealth yesterday with $55m in total funding from investors including Slack Fund, the corporate venturing vehicle for work messaging platform Slack. General Catalyst led Glean’s most recent round, with commitments from Kleiner Perkins and Lightspeed. The latter two co-led earlier rounds, when Slack Fund invested. Glean did not provide further details about the rounds.
Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies, a Germany-based hydrogen carrier technology developer, raised €50m ($59m) in a funding round led by Jera Americas, a subsidiary of energy utility Jera, on Monday. The corporate provided $17.7m and was joined by Chevron Technology Ventures, the investment arm of oil and gas supplier Chevron, fuel tank producer Royal Vopak, metal forming technology producer Winkelmann Group and mining group Anglo American Platinum (AAP)-backed AP Ventures. The round also included Temasek, Pavilion Capital. Automotive manufacturer Hyundai injected an undisclosed amount in May 2020 following a similarly undisclosed sum from AAP in 2014 and $18.9m from Royal Vopak, AP Ventures, conglomerate Mitsubishi, polymer and chemicals manufacturer Covestro and in 2019. Hydrogenious LOHC noted in its latest press release that the 2019 round was actually worth €20m and occurred in July 2019, but did not provide further clarification. Hydrogenious is a spinout of Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg.
Statespace, a US-based video game technique software producer backed by media holding company WndrCo, has attracted $50m in a funding round co-led by Khosla Ventures and Lux Capital, with commitments from FirstMark, June Fund, West Ventures, AME, Bessemer Venture Partners, Modern Venture Partners, Mirae Asset, Animal Capital, Riverside, Gaingels, and unnamed others, according to VentureBeat. The company has now raised $98m altogether, and WindrCo had backed a $2.5m seed round in 2019.
China-based digitisation services provider DataStory has collected $39m in a series C-plus round led by consumer electronics company Xiaomi’s Shunwei Capital unit, according to DealStreetAsia. The company’s last disclosed round was a $17m series B-plus in June 2020 co-led by market research provider Ipsos and Guangzhou Shengsong Asset Management.
Landed, a US-based fintech company focused on helping professionals in industries deemed essential to build financial security and buy homes, has received $31m in a series B round backed by title insurance provider First American Financial and MassMutual Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of insurer MassMutual. Learn Capital and Navitas Capital co-led the round, which also attracted Omers Ventures, Initialized Capital and Ulu Ventures. Omers Ventures led a $10.5m series A extension in June 2020, when Initialized Capital also invested. The latter had led the initial $7.5m series A tranche in April 2019. Landed has now raised $53m in equity funding altogether, though details about earlier rounds could not be confirmed.
US-based cloud-based energy analytics software provider Bidgely has closed a $26m funding round backed by energy company Exelon’s corporate venturing unit, Constellation Technology Ventures. Moore Strategic Ventures led the round and was also joined by Accurant International, Future Energy Ventures and Georgian Partners. IvyCap Ventures injected Rs150m ($2m) in March 2021, following an $8m commitment from CIBC Innovation Banking, the investment arm of financial services firm Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, in September 2020. Bidgely previously raised $27m in a series C round in 2018 backed by energy utilities Eon and RWE. Constellation Technology Ventures was expected to take part in the series C round, and Bidgely has now seemingly confirmed this by identifying the unit as a returning investor for its latest round.
Flywheel, a US-based provider of biomedical data management software, has collected $22m in a series C round backed by dRx Capital and HPE Pathfinder – respective vehicles for pharmaceutical firm Novartis and chipmaker Qualcomm, and for enterprise IT company Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The round was led by 8VC and also featured iSelect, Argonautic Ventures, Beringea, Spike Ventures, Key Investments, Seraph, Great North Labs and unnamed others. Flywheel previously secured $15m in a series B round in February this year backed by dRx Capital, HPE, Great North Labs, iSelect and Argonautic as well as co-leading investors Beringea and 8VC.
Axelera AI, a Netherlands-based artificial intelligence semiconductor technology producer, has closed a $12m seed round led by blockchain infrastructure services provider Bitfury, with participation from Imec and its venture fund Imec.xpand as well as Innovation Industries. Axelera was incubated by Bitfury in 2019, before being spun off this year. The company had joined forces with Imec in early 2020 to develop computing architecture for high-performance artificial intelligence.
TomoCredit, the US-based creator of a credit card that helps build users’ credit scores, has raised $10m in a series A round co-led by KB Investment, a subsidiary of consumer bank Kookmin Bank, and Kapor Capital. TomoCredit attracted $7m in seed financing from financial services firm Barclays, KB Investment, Knollwood Investment Advisory, Bam Ventures, Passport Capital, Ulu Ventures, Strong Ventures and angel investors in February this year.
India-based grocery delivery service Chaldal has closed a $10m series C round backed by diversified conglomerate Mir Group, according to TechCrunch. Taavet Hinrikus, Sten Tamkivi and Xploration Capital co-led the round. Chaldal obtained $1.75m in funding from government-owned venture capital fund Startup Bangladesh in March 2021, having raised $5.5m in series A funding led by International Finance Corporation, with participation from IDLC Finance Limited and Y Combinator in October 2018. The series A round reportedly brought Chaldal’s funding to $10m, but further details could not be confirmed.
DeepHow, a US-based company that uses artificial intelligence to turn technical data into training videos, has completed a $9m pre-series A round backed by Qualcomm Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of chipmaker Qualcomm. Sierra Ventures led the round, while Osage Venture Partners and Foothill Ventures also took part. The latter had provided an undisclosed amount of pre-seed funding at an unspecified date, and DeepHow has now reportedly raised $13m altogether.
Domination Finance, a US-based non-custodial, decentralised exchange for trading dominance pairs, has completed a $3.2m seed round backed by Huobi Ventures and OKEx BlockdreamVentures, respective vehicles for cryptocurrency exchanges Huobi and OKEx, as well as diversified group KNS, digital asset management service GSR and cryptocurrency analytics portal CoinGecko. The round also attracted Dragonfly Capital, AU21 Capital, Shima Capital, LD Capital and assorted angel investors.
M12, the corporate venturing unit of software producer Microsoft, has co-led a $3.2m seed round for Private AI, a Canada-based developer of privacy-preserving machine learning and natural language processing tools. Forum Ventures co-led the round, while Differential Ventures, Shasta Ventures, Hyperplane Venture Capital, Parliament Angels and angel investors such as retired astronaut Chris Hadfield also took part. Differential Ventures previously supplied pre-seed financing, Private AI confirmed as part of the seed round announcement.
India-based edtech startup Tinkerly has raised Rs65m ($880,000) in funding from Navneet Tech Ventures, an investment subsidiary of educational publisher Navneet Education, SucSeed Angel Network, Keiretsu Forum and assorted angel investors, according to Entrepreneur. SucSeed, Keiretsu and several angel investors were identified as returning backers, but further details could not be ascertained.
Japan-based IT and software-as-a-service product sales training school operator Zenforce has raised ¥70m ($640,000) in a seed round from Hirac Fund, a vehicle for Money Forward Venture Partners, part of accounting software provider Money Forward, in addition to unnamed angel investors and financial institutions.
China-based autonomous driving technology developer Momenta.ai has secured an undisclosed amount from carmaker SAIC Motor, according to Gasgoo. A report by Xchuxing claimed Momenta had recently closed a $400m funding round led by carmaker General Motors, but this could not be confirmed. Momenta’s last confirmed funding round was a $500m series C in March 2021 co-led by industrial technology and appliance producer Bosch, SAIC Motor and fellow automotive manufacturer Toyota. The round’s backers also included carmaker Mercedes-Benz and internet group Tencent, among others.
Bridgestone Americas, a regional subsidiary of tire manufacturer Bridgestone, has taken a 10% stake in US-based mobile vehicle maintenance services provider Wrench in return for an undisclosed amount. The investment forms part of a strategic partnership. Wrench had raised $20m in a series C round that included diversified trading group Marubeni and was led by Vulcan Capital in 2019, when Madrona Venture Group and Tenaya Capital also invested.
Adatos, a Singapore-based provider of artificial intelligence-powered data analytics for agriculture, has closed a series A round of undisclosed size backed by Genting Plantations, a subsidiary of conglomerate Genting, according to E27.
India-based online gaming company Quizbee has raised an undisclosed amount of pre-seed funding from diversified group Kanodia, according to Entrepreneur. Quizbee runs competitive multiplayer knowledge-based quizzes and offers cash prizes to winners.
Electronic ticket sales platform Zaiko has invested an undisclosed amount in US-based digital live event distribution service Moment House. Moment House previously secured $12m in a series A round last month featuring design agency Ideo and UTA Ventures, the strategic investment arm of talent agency United Talent Agency. Forerunner Ventures led that round, which also featured Defy Ventures, Work Life Ventures and multiple angel investors.
Mission Romantic, the Japan-based operator of online social bookstore Chapters Bookstore, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from publisher Tohan as well as unnamed angel investors.
India-based edtech company Genext Students has raised an undisclosed amount from educational publisher Navneet Education’s corporate venturing unit Navneet Tech Ventures, acquiring a 51.8% stake in the company.
M&A
Zype, a video API and infrastructure platform, has bought MAZ Systems, a US-based online content delivery platform backed by printing services provider LSC Communications, for an undisclosed amount. LSC supplied $3m in series A financing to Maz in 2018, adding to a total of $2.1m in prior funding raised from SierraMaya360, MI Ventures, T5 Capital and Expansion Venture Capital, the latter three of which took part in the company’s $1m seed round in 2012.
– Additional reporting by Liwen-Edison Fu
