Funding
France-based, business-focused digital bank Qonto secured €486m ($552m) today in a series D round that, according to TechCrunch, included internet and gaming group Tencent and valued it at $5bn. The round was co-led by Tiger Global Management and TCV and also featured Exor Seeds – on behalf of diversified holding company Exor – as well as Alkeon, Eurazeo, KKR, Insight Partners, Valar, Alven, DST Global, Gaingels and private investors Guillaume Pousaz and Ashley Flucas.
Diversified conglomerate SK provided $350m in equity funding yesterday for Center for Breakthrough Medicines, a US-headquartered contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) focused on cell and gene therapies. SK, the parent of drug developer SK Biopharmaceuticals, also intends to collaborate with the company on strategic joint ventures and sponsored research agreements.
GCL Semiconductor, a silicon chip manufacturing subsidiary of China-headquartered energy and semiconductor group GCL Group, has received over RMB1bn ($157m) in series A funding, DealStreetAsia reported yesterday. The participants were all based in China and included chipmaker Beijing Zhaoyi Innovation Technology’s Stony Creek Capital fund as well as investment firm Yijing Capital and investment management firm Cindafund Investment.
US-based home medical care technology provider Medically Home raised $110m yesterday from a range of corporate investors. The capital was supplied by medical device producer Baxter International and healthcare providers Global Medical Response (GMR), Cardinal Health, Mayo Clinic and Kaiser Permanente, the first three of which are also taking board seats through the deal.
Telecommunications firm Telkom Indonesia’s MDI Ventures unit has led a $108m series C round for Indonesia-based business lending platform developer KoinWorks consisting of $43m in equity funding and $65m in debt financing, TechCrunch reported today. Saison Capital, the investment arm of payment services firm Credit Saison, also took part in the round, as did Quona Capital, Triodos Investment Management, ACV and East Ventures.
MeMed, an Israel-headquartered developer of host response-focused life sciences technology, secured $93m in funding from investors including insurers ClaI Insurance and Phoenix Insurance, medical device maker Caesarea Medical Holdings and Union Tech Ventures, the investment arm of automotive distributor Union Group. They were joined by Horizons Ventures, Shavit Capital, Social Capital, La Maison Partners, Touchwood Capital, Poalim Equity and Western Technology Investment.
Financial services firm Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank invested $47m in India-based non-banking financial services provider DMI Finance today. The company had raised $123m from video game publisher Nexon in an April 2020 deal valuing it above $1bn to reportedly increase its overall equity funding to $800m.
US-based technology training provider Career Karma received $40m in series B funding yesterday from investors including telecoms and internet group SoftBank and internet and technology conglomerate Alphabet’s GV subsidiary. The round was led by Top Tier Capital Partners and also backed by Kapor Capital, Initialized Capital, Emerson Collective, Backstage Capital, Alumni Ventures Group, Bronze Investments, Stardust, 4S Bay Partners, Trousdale Ventures, Imaginable Futures, Y Combinator, Chaos Ventures, 1921 Ventures, Credo Ventures, Studio Management, Necessary Ventures, Notley Ventures, Denmark West, Cap Table Coalition, Winklevoss Capital, Taavet + Sten and various individuals.
VitalConnect, a US-based biosensor technology developer backed by medical product maker Baxter, raised $39m from healthcare investment firm EW Healthcare Partners and unnamed new and existing shareholders. It had completed a $38m series C round co-led by Baxter subsidiary Baxter Ventures and MVM Life Science Partners in 2017 following at least $51.6m in earlier debt and equity financing.
Financial services firm Citi took part in Austria-headquartered synthetic data technology developer Mostly AI’s $25m series B round yesterday through strategic investment arm Citi Ventures. Venture capital firm Molten Ventures led the round, which included Earlybird and 42Cap.
SMBC Venture Capital, part of financial services firm Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, joined Incubate Fund and Axiom Asia Private Capital to invest ¥2bn ($17.3m) in Japan-based marketing automation tool provider Satori today. Satori said its overall funding has reached about $39m, including $660,000 from enterprise software provider Scala and unnamed angel investors in 2018 and $11.1m from IT services firms TIS and Nihon Unisys (through Canal Ventures), SMBC Venture Capital and Incubate Fund in 2019.
Healthcare engagement software producer mPulse Mobile secured an undisclosed amount of funding yesterday from investors including Optum Ventures, the corporate VC arm of health services provider Optum, and Echo Health Ventures, the VC firm co-founded by care provider Cambia Health Solutions. The round was led by growth equity firm PSG and also featured OCA Ventures, HLM Venture Partners, SJF Ventures and Bonfire Ventures. The company had raised over $41m as of its $16m series C round in August 2020.
Anka, the Côte d’Ivoire-headquartered operator of an e-commerce marketplace for African crafted goods, received $6.2m in pre-series A funding in late 2021 from investors including claims adjuster Groupe Prunay, Disrupt Africa reported today. Investment group Investisseurs & Partenaires led the round, which included Bestseller Foundation, VestedWorld, Enigmo, Rising Tide Africa, angel investor Joe Tsai and existing backer Saviu Ventures.
Diversified holding company Almajdouie Holding’s VC firm, Raed Ventures, led a $5m seed round yesterday for Dawul, the Saudi Arabia-based operator of an online trading platform. Impact46, Seedra Ventures, Derayah Venture and Sukna Ventures also contributed to the round.
Financial services firm UBS provided an undisclosed amount for Trust & Will, the US-based owner of an online platform for estate planning, yesterday through VC arm UBS Next. The company had raised a total of $23m as of a $15m series B round in late 2020 featuring Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures, a vehicle for financial services firm Northwestern Mutual.
Media group Discovery supplied an undisclosed amount of funding yesterday for OpenAP, a US-based provider of audience onboarding technology for television advertisers. The corporate was an existing strategic partner of OpenAP.
Menou, the Japan-based creator of an automated visual inspection system, received ¥250m ($2.2m) in funding today from Deepcore, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital and Nissay Capital, on behalf of internet and telecoms group SoftBank, financial services firm Mitsubishi UFJ and insurer Nippon Life. It said it has now raised about $3.3m in total including $760,000 from Deepcore, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital and LED lighting inspection service CCS in 2020.
Pharmaceutical, food and beauty ingredients provider Iwaki invested an undisclosed amount today in ICS-net, the Japan-based operator of raw ingredients information service Share Shima. The investment was made through a capital and business alliance.
Japan-based entertainment digitalisation technology developer Wunderbar secured ¥50m ($430,000) today from investors including mobile game publisher KLab’s Anobaka unit. The figure included debt financing from Japan Finance Corporation.
Oishi Kenko, the Japan-based operator of an online service which provides recipes personalised for each user’s health, raised an undisclosed amount from monosodium glutamate seasoning producer Ajinomoto today. The company had received $3.6m from insurers Dai-chi Life and Aflac in 2018 and an undisclosed sum from packaging container producer Toyo Seikan in March 2021.
M&A
Pharmaceutical firm Takeda exercised its option yesterday to purchase portfolio company Adaptate Biotherapeutics, a UK-based antibody therapeutics developer, for an undisclosed amount. The company had raised $18m in series A2 funding from Takeda and life sciences investment firm Abingworth in April 2021 to take its overall equity funding to $34m. It was spun off by biopharmaceutical company GammaDelta Therapeutics in 2019 with funding from Takeda and Abingworth.
Mobile network operator T-Mobile purchased Octopus Interactive, a US-based provider of interactive video screens for in-car entertainment, for an undisclosed sum yesterday, allowing mass media group Sinclair and advertising technology producer MediaMath to exit. Sinclair subsidiary Sinclair Digital had joined MediaMath vehicle MathCapital to supply $10.3m for the company in 2019 to take its total funding to over $20m.
Public Markets
US-based peer-to-peer car sharing service Turo filed yesterday to raise up to $100m in an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. The company was valued above $1bn as of a series E round featuring internet and media holding group IAC that closed at $280m in early 2020. Its other investors include internet and technology group Alphabet, carmakers Daimler and General Motors, conglomerates Sumitomo and SK, payment services firm American Express and insurer Liberty Mutual.
Funds
Canada-headquartered venture capital firm Chrysalix Venture Capital closed its Chrysalix RoboValley Fund at almost $100m yesterday with backing from Artantix, an affiliate of fund-of-funds Consensus Business Group. Its limited partners include corporates Caterpillar (through Caterpillar Venture Capital), J-Power, Hitachi Construction Machinery, Petronas, Severstal, Mitsubishi Corporation, FLSmidth, Golden Properties, Hyundai Motor Company and an unnamed mining company as well as Delft University of Technology.
Additional reporting by Liwen-Edison Fu. Image courtesy of Qonto.
