Funding
Singapore-based solar energy project developer Surya Utama Nuansa (SUN) Energy completed a $25m series A round today that included power producer TBS Energy Utama’s PT Toba Bara Energi subsidiary and Delta Dunia Makmur, the owner of coal miner Buma. The round valued the company at $200m and the capital will be channelled into expanding SUN Energy’s Indonesian project pipeline.
Medicom Technologies, the US-based operator of a decentralised health information network, has raised $21.8m in series B financing from investors including healthcare provider Cone Health’s corporate venturing vehicle, Cone Health Ventures. Venture capital firm Oval Park Capital led the round, which also featured Vocap Partners and Grayhawk Capital. The company had secured $5.2m in equity funding in 2017 and a total of $6m in debt financing between 2016 and September this year according to regulatory filings, and it named Oval Park Capital as an existing investor.
Plant-based food producer Eat Well Group has led a $12m series A round for US-headquartered healthy infant food brand Amara valuing it at $100m, TechCrunch reported on Friday. The round also featured existing investors from Amara’s $2m seed round in May 2020, including online health and beauty product marketplace Pharmapacks, the company told TechCrunch.
DoraHacks, the US-headquartered operator of an international app development community, received $8m in funding from Binance Labs, the investment arm of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, on Friday. The company had raised an undisclosed amount from Bitcoin miner Bitmain in 2018, at which point its earlier investors had reportedly included hacker team organiser TopHacker Group, 8 Decimals Capital and BA Capital.
Snapshot Labs, the creator of a tool which helps decentralised autonomous organisations poll the views of their members, raised $4m on Friday in a seed round featuring decentralised finance technology provider Gnosis, blockchain scaling technology developer StarkWare and Coinbase Ventures, the investment arm of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. Token fund 1kx led the round, which was also backed by The LAO, MetaCartel Ventures, BoostVC, Scalar Capital, Fire Eyes DAO, LongHash Ventures and Coopérative Kleros.
Catalyst Data Partners, the Japan-based consumer database provider formerly known as TDS, has agreed an undisclosed amount of funding from media companies Kadokawa, Kodansha, Shueisha and Poplar set to be provided by the end of this month. The company had rebranded in August this year, raising an undisclosed sum from four other publishers – Gakken, Shogakukan, Nippan Group and Fujisan Magazine Service – in the process.
US-based calendar app developer Centered has secured $3.9m in funding from investors including JLL Spark, the corporate venturing arm of real estate services firm JLL, TechCrunch has reported. VC firm Uncork Capital co-led the round with VC fund Yes VC and it also featured Shrug Capital, Basement Fund, AVG Basement, Remote First and undisclosed angel investors.
Blockchain app developer Animoca Brands has co-led a $3.75m seed round for BlockchainSpace, the Singapore-headquartered operator of an online hub for gaming guilds in the play-to-earn space. The round was co-led by Spartan Group and Infinity Ventures Crypto and included 3Commas Capital, on behalf of trading bot developer 3Commas, as well as crypto analytics provider Coingecko, play-to-earn guild YGG, Arca, Bitscale Capital, CMS Holdings, Fenbushi Capital, GBV Capital, Mechanism Capital, Parataxis, Petrock Capital, Sfermion and Stablenode.
Digital currency exchange Binance has provided an undisclosed amount of funding for Mobox, the developer of an online gaming platform that has no fixed headquarters. Mobox has also established an incubation fund in partnership with Binance’s non-fungible token marketplace.
Indonesia-based domestic services provider Okhome has received $3m in series A funding from investors including steel producer Posco’s corporate venturing subsidiary, Posco Ventures, Tech in Asia reported on Friday. A Ventures, ES Investor, Honest Ventures and Enlight Ventures also contributed to the round, which came three years after a $300,000 seed round that included K Cube Ventures and Spring Camp according to Tech in Asia.
Japan-based buy now, pay later service Smartpay has disclosed an undisclosed amount of funding from investors including SMBC Venture Capital, the corporate VC vehicle for financial services firm Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, as it formally launched its product. The company said its investors also include VC firm Global Founders Capital.
Kibo Finance, the UK-headquartered operator of a cross-border platform for the trading of decentralised finance options, has completed a $1.5m seed round backed by crypto services provider Bitcoin.com, crypto trading firms MGNR and GSR Markets and cryptocurrency exchanges Gate.io and Huobi. They were joined by Republic, Fenbushi Capital, AU21 Capital, Genblock, Kenetic Capital, Digital Finance Group and angel investors David Garcia, Sandeep Nailwal and Mirza Uddin.
TradeFit, the Japan-based creator of a smart chatbot for the hospitality industry, has raised an undisclosed amount of series A funding form new and returning investors including human resources group Pasona. The company had received $660,000 in seed funding in June 2018 from Nissay Capital and GMO VenturePartners – on behalf of insurer Nippon Life and internet company GMO – as well as unnamed angel investors, before the corporates returned for a $970,000 round six months later that included undisclosed individuals and debt financing from Japan Finance Corporation.
Trading group Sarya Holdings co-led a $325,000 seed round for United Arab Emirates-based hyperlocal social app developer Hayi, Wamda reported yesterday. The round also featured Falak Startups and undisclosed angel investors.
M&A
Pharmaceutical group Vifor Pharma agreed today to purchase Sanifit Therapeutics, a Spain-based developer of treatments for vascular calcification disorders that counts pharmaceutical firms Lundbeck and Baxter Healthcare as investors. Sanifit, a spinout from University of the Balearic Islands, will be acquired for €205m ($231m) upfront that could be expanded by up to €170m in clinical, regulatory and market access milestone payments. Sanifit had raised $149m as of a $62.8m series D round in mid-2019 featuring Lundbeck vehicle Lundbeckfonden Ventures.
Consulting firm Accenture has agreed to buy Tambourine, a Japan-based provider of integrated commerce services on the Salesforce customer relationship management platform. Salesforce had invested an undisclosed amount in the company in 2018 through corporate venturing subsidiary Salesforce.
Cancer care provider HealthCare Global Enterprises (HCG) has paid an undisclosed amount to increase its stake in India-based hospital owner Suchirayu Healthcare Solutions from 17.7% to 78.6%, Business Standard reported today. Details of HCG’s earlier investment were not disclosed but it gave the corporate the right to increase its shareholding to 80% by July 2022.
Media group Egmont’s Nordisk Games subsidiary has acquired shares in Sweden-based multiplayer gaming studio Star Stable Entertainment from unnamed investors in order to increase its stake to more than 56%. Nordisk Games’ immediate parent, film producer Nordisk Film, invested $17.9m in Star Stable in May 2018 and paid a reported $1.8m for additional shares seven months later to increase its stake from 25% to 40%.
Automotive manufacturer Porsche has taken a majority stake in Greyp, an electric motorcycle subsidiary of electric vehicle developer Rimac, itself a Porsche portfolio company, in return for an undisclosed amount of funding. Porsche had acquired a 10% stake in Rimac in a 2018 deal and increased that to 24% in March this year with an $83.2m investment. It had also acquired right of first refusal to acquire a majority stake in Greyp, one it took up when a third-party made an acquisition offer.
Additional reporting by Liwen-Edison Fu. Photo courtesy of SUN Energy.
