Funding
Financial services firm BBVA has co-led a £75m ($102m) funding round for UK-headquartered digital bank Atom Bank with Toscafund and Infinity Investment Partners. The round valued Atom at approximately $590m according to UKTN and it comes after BBVA and Toscafund provided $54.9m in funding for the company in April 2021.
Australia-based delivery bike producer Zoomo has added $20m from investors including fleet services firm SG Fleet, energy and forestry group Copec and financial services firm Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group to a series B round now totalling $80m, TechCrunch reported today. Collaborative Fund led the extension, which also featured Akuna Capital while Copec and Mitsubishi UFJ took part through Wind Ventures and MUFG Innovation Partners respectively. Zoomo had raised $60m in November 2021 including $30m in equity funding from Grok Ventures, Skip Capital, ArcTern Ventures, AirTree Ventures, Clean Energy Finance Corporation, Contrarian Ventures and Maniv Mobility.
SpliceBio, a Spain-based developer of gene therapies which utilise protein splicing, has closed a €50m ($56.8m) series A round co-led by UCB Ventures, the investment arm of pharmaceutical firm UCB. Venture capital firm Ysios Capital co-led the round, also investing alongside pharmaceutical group Novartis, which took part through its Venture Fund, New Enterprise Associates, Gilde Healthcare and Asabys Partners.
US-based digital workforce software developer Skael received $38m in series A funding yesterday from investors including Dell Technologies Capital, the corporate venturing arm of computing technology provider Dell. The round was led by VC firm RTP Global and also backed by Bonfire Ventures, which had led the company’s $4.1m seed round in late 2020, investing with Daher Capital, Backend Capital, Ride Ventures, StratMinds VC, Buffalo Ventures and unnamed others.
Mobile network operator MTS has co-led a $27.8m funding round for Russia-based electric scooter rental service Urent, Forbes reported yesterday. VPE Capital and VEB Ventures also participated in the round, which valued the company at roughly $95m, a source told East-West Digital News.
Leko Labs, the Luxembourg-headquartered operator of a construction service utilising sustainable materials, raised $21m today in a series A round featuring software producer Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund and internet group Tencent. VC fund 2150 led the round, also investing with Rise PropTech Fund, Amavi Capital, Extantia and Freigeist Capital.
Commercial property developer Medipower invested $5.8m in Groundfloor, the US-based operator of a real estate-focused online crowdfunding platform, yesterday alongside $7.2m raised on the SeedInvest crowdfunding platform and $5m in convertible note financing from individuals on Groundfloor’s own service. Yair Goldfinger, chairman of Medipower, is taking a board seat through the deal, and it plans to commit up to $100m to Groundfloor’s platform in the next year and $220m over the following year.
Cellular agriculture technology producer Agronomics provided €6.9m to lead a €10m ($11.3m) seed round today for Onego Bio, a Finland-based provider of animal-free egg protein. Maki VC also contributed to the round, and it came after Onego was spun out of VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.
Next Web Capital, a Singapore-based provider of mentorship for cryptocurrency and blockchain startups, raised $10m from investors including digital currency exchange Bitbank today, The Bridge reported. World Innovation Lab also contributed to the round, disclosed alongside the launch of an accelerator for crypto and Web3 projects.
Congo-headquartered play-to-earn gaming platform developer Jambo secured $7.5m today in a seed round backed by quantitative trading firm Alameda Research, Coinbase Ventures, Polygon Studios and Delphi Ventures, the last three on behalf of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, crypto scaling technology developer Polygon and crypto research firm Delphi Digital. They were joined by gaming guild Yield Guild Games, Three Arrows Capital, Tiger Global Management, AllianceDAO, DeFiance Capital and angel investors Sandeep Nailwal, Santiago R Santos, Do Kwon and Piers Kicks.
South Korea-based smart endoscope developer Mediintech raised KRW8bn ($6.7m) yesterday in a series A round that included Smilegate Investment, an affiliate of mobile game publisher Smilegate. It was joined by Atinum Investment and Future Play, and the round came after Mediintech was spun out of Korea Electrotechnical Research Institute in 2020.
Atem Network, the Singapore-based operator of an online social communications platform focused on the Web3 community, has received $3m in seed capital from investors including crypto trading tool developer Mask Network and GSR Ventures, which took part on behalf of crypto trading firm GSR. The round was led by Ince Capital and also featured Mirana Ventures, A&T Capital, Atlas Capital, Foresight Ventures, Zonff Partners and angel investor Michael Zhang.
Financial services firm Icici Bank agreed yesterday to invest Rs 200m ($2.7m) in India-based financial information provider Verve Financial Services, according to a regulatory filing. The transaction will give it a 9.5% stake.
US-based cybersecurity software developer PhishFirewall completed a $2.5m seed round led by distribution and manufacturing services provider Cox Group yesterday. Barry Cox, president of Cox Group, has joined the company’s board of directors in connection with the round.
Telecommunications and internet group SoftBank is participating in a seed round for Kenya-headquartered digital financial infrastructure provider Credrails set to close at $2.5m this month, Bloomberg reported yesterday. Unicorn Growth, Samos Ventures and Precursor are also part of the round.
Blockchain developer Solana led an $1.85m seed round yesterday for Chillchat, the Singapore-based creator of a metaverse content creation platform which allows users to earn money. The round valued the startup at $10m and included cryptocurrency exchange FTX’s investment arm, FTX Ventures, and gaming guild Yield Guild Games’decentralised autonomous organisation, YGGSEA, as well as blockchain entertainment app developer Animoca Brands, Griffin Gaming Partners, A&T Capital, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Diamond Hands Ventures, PKO Investments and various individuals.
Insurance firm Sumitomo Life invested an undisclosed sum in Japan-based communication robot developer Yukai Engineering today through its Sumisei Innovation Fund. The company had raised a total of almost $5.7m as of a $4.7m series A round in early 2020 featuring gas utility Tokyo Gas, audio recognition software producer FueTrek, Nippon Venture Capital and Energy Environment Investment.
Polygon Tailor, the Japan-headquartered creator of an avatar-based e-commerce platform, received ¥100m ($870,000) in pre-seed funding from casual apparel retailer C’s Men, advertising agency Fisco, e-learning content producer Kushim and communications technology producer NCXX Group yesterday.
Publisher Gakken Holdings has provided an undisclosed amount of funding for Holoeyes, the Japan-based developer of an image processing software platform for the medical industry called Holoeyes MD, last week. It invested through corporate VC fund Gakken Capital and the deal came three years after $2.2m from SBI Investment, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital and Mizuho Capital, which invested on behalf of financial services firms SBI, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group.
M&A
M-Daq, the operator of a cross-border money transfer service, agreed today to purchase Singapore-based cross-border payment service Wallex Technologies in a deal of undisclosed size allowing conglomerate Sinar Mas and financial services firm Bank Central Asia (BCA) to exit. BCA vehicle Central Capital Ventura joined Beenext and Indonusa Dwitama to supply an undisclosed amount of pre-series A funding for the company in 2018, before Sinar Mas subsidiary SMDV, Bace Capital and Skystar Capital added an undisclosed amount in a mid-2020 series A round.
Financial software producer KFin Technologies has exited India-based health and insurance software developer Artivatic.ai in an acquisition by online insurance platform developer RenewBuy that a source told VCCircle was sized at $10m. KFin paid an undisclosed amount for a 17% stake in the company in May 2021, following a reported $140,000 in earlier funding.
Funds
Germany-headquartered venture capital firm Revent has reached a €60m ($68m) final close of its debut fund with backing from e-commerce firm Otto Group and skincare brand Beiersdorf. Its other limited partners include North Rhine-Westphalia’s development bank, NRW.Bank, as well as LfA Förderbank Bayern and individuals including Verena Pausder, Sascha Konietzke, Florian Heinemann and Luis Hanemann.
Vietnam-based VC firm ThinkZone Ventures closed its second fund, ThinkZone Fund II, at $60m today having raised cash from LPs such as consumer product distributor Phu Thai Holdings, plastics supplier Stavian Group and IPA Investments. The fund will invest in companies at seed and series A stage, supplying up to $3m per deal.
Additional reporting by Liwen-Edison Fu. Image courtesy of Atom bank plc.
