Global Corporate Venturing recorded 142 investments during April worth a total of $6.2bn and 18 exits worth $3.2bn.
US-based companies received the greatest number of investments (79) followed by Germany (8) and China and India (7 each). The top sector was IT (37) followed by health (31), media (21) and services (17). In cases where the investment round was disclosed, series B was the most common (21).
IT
The largest investment in the information technology sector was Cloudera, a US-based Hadoop software developer, that closed a $900m equity round after Intel invested $740m. Initial reports had suggested Intel would make a far less substantial investment that would lift the series F round to approximately $200m.
Other investors in this round include Google’s corporate venturing unit Google Ventures, along with investment firm T Rowe Price and an affiliate of MSD Capital.
A smaller investment of note is online image-sharing site Imgur’s series A round. Created as a “simple image sharer”, Imgur raised $40m in funding from venture capital (VC) firm Andreessen Horowitz along with an undisclosed amount from internet entertainment and news provider Reddit.
This funding marks the first notable external investment in the company that now claims to have more than 130
million unique visitors each month.
Pure Storage, a US-based flash storage company that has enjoyed investment from Samsung and In-Q-Tel in the
past, closed a $225m series F round.SAP Ventures invested in app technology developer Apigee in its $60m equity round.
Health
The top investments in the health sector in April generally fell into series B funding rounds.
Principia Biopharma, a small-molecule drug developer, closed its series B funding round with a $50m investment. This round was led by private equity firm Sofinnova Ven-tures and involved all Principia’s existing investors, including SR One, the venturing arm of pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline.
Other series B investments above $35m included respiratory disease biotech company Alios BioPharma ($41m), visual deterioration pharmaceutical company PanOptica ($40m) and drugs company Epirus Biopharmaceuticals ($36m).
Germany-based JenaValve Technology, a company developing aortic valve medical devices, extended its series C round by a further $10m. The first close generated $62.5m in July 2013.
Media
Alibaba and Yunfeng Capital made the largest investment by far in the media sector in April in their $1.2bn investment into video streaming service Youku Tudou. In doing so, Alibaba acquired a 16.5% stake in the company and Yungfeng acquired 2%.Youku floated on the New York Stock Exchange in 2010 through a $202.9m initial public offering.
In cases where investment rounds were disclosed, seed investment made up the majority. Advertising companies Enplug and AdsNative raised $2.5m and $2m respectively.
Bloomberg Beta, a subsidiary of media company Bloomberg, took part in the professional news and analysis network Quibb’s seed round that raised $750,000.
Warner Bros took part in US-based animated messaging app Skit’s $500,000 seed round along with RMR Capital, Federal Street Angels and Cloud Power Seed Fund.
YouTube music network Omnia Media raised $500,000 in its seed round, including backing from Canada-based media company Blue Ant Media.
Services
TPG Growth, the early-stage investment arm of private equity firm TPG, led a $500m series D investment round in Airbnb, an online service for people to let their houses as holiday accommodation. There was also investment from Dragoneer Investment Group, Sequoia Capital and T Rowe Price. The round values Airbnb at $10bn.
Ride-sharing company Lyft, which was founded as Zim-ride in 2007, gained $250m in its series D round. Alibaba took part in the round along with Third Point Ventures, the venture capital arm of investment adviser Third Point.
Delivery Hero, a Germany-based online food takeaway network, added $85m to the $88m already raised this year. Its total funding to date stands at more than $280m. Hedge fund Luxor Capital Group led the series F round.
Google Ventures took part in the $3.25m seed round for Stitch, a US-based developer of an app that helps sales people close business deals. Other investors included SoftTech, Freestyle Capital, Foundation Capital and angel investors.
In non-US and EU deals, Singapore-based In2Nite, a company that has created a same-day hotel booking app,
closed a $2.8m investment round led by IDG Ventures.
China-based education start up Haowaijiao, Israel-based online recruitment company Jobookit and Japan-based Eltes all received undisclosed investment in their companies.
Consumer
E-commerce group Alibaba has expanded into traditional bricks-and-mortar stores in China with a $692m investment in department store retailer Intime Retail. This investment consists of $214m for a 9.9% equity stake and $478m in convertible bonds that would increase its stake to 25% if converted.
Germany-based e-commerce company Westwing closed a series C investment round with $99m. Investors in Westwing include Tengelmann Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of the German retailer.
Farfetch, a UK-based online fashion marketplace, closed a series D funding round with $66m. Investment came from magazinepublisher Condé Nast, Advent Venture Partners and Richard Chen, a partner at China-based VC firm Ceyaun in a round led by private equity firm Vitruvian Partners.
There were a few smaller investments too. Bass Manager, a US-based developer of an app for bass anglers,
raised $250,000 in seed funding from technology firm PG Media.
EventRegist, a Japan-based online ticketing agency, gained $1.6m from media company Nikkei as part of a deal that involves the promotion of EventRegist’s service to Nikkei’s subscribers.
Recreational services provider Brunswick led an investment round for US boat rental marketplace Boatbound that resulted in a $2.5m investment. Israel-based crowd-funding platform OurCrowd and angel investors supported the round.
Financial services
The largest investment in this sector was in Lending Club, a US-based company that aims to use technology to offer better rates to borrowers and investors. It raised $115m in debt and equity financing – $65m was raised in equity funding from sources including Google Ventures. Lending Club did not disclose who provided the $50m in debt financing.
The second-largest investment was in SoFi, a US-based peer-to-peer lender focusing on the student loan market. It raised $80m in series C funding. VC firm Discovery Capital Management led the round that enjoyed reinvestment from Renren, a China-based internet company.
Betterment, an online investment manager based in the US, raised $32m in series C funding. Investors in Betterment included Citi Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of the US bank, asset manager Northwestern Mutual Capital and VC firm Globespan Capital Partners.
Sweden-based Bima, a company that provides insur-ance cover through mobile devices, raised $22m. Millicom invested in the round with Bima’s other existing sharehold-ers, Kinnevik and LeapFrog Investments. UK-based international payment service Currency Cloud raised $10m in series B funding. XAnge Private Equity, an investment subsidiary of France-based postal delivery company La Poste, invested alongside previous investors Notion Capital, Silicon Valley Bank and Atlas Venture.
Utilities and energy
Seven of the eight deals in the utilities and energy sectors were in the US. The remaining deal was in France.
Germany-based utility company Eon and GE Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of industrial conglomerate General Electric, invested in rooftop solar panel installer Sungevity’s $70m equity round, led by VC fund Jetstream Ventures.
US-based biotech company Verdezyne agreed the key terms for a $48m funding round led by Malaysia-based conglomerate Sime Darby Berhad and including UK oil company BP and mineral technology company DSM.
France-based producer of laser radar remote sensor technology Leosphere received $27.7m in the second close of an equity round supported by Electranova Capital, the VC fund sponsored by power company EDF.
Smaller investments included $4m for fuel cell stack producer Relion in an all-share deal with fuel cell technology developer Plug Power. Tachyus, a company that develops software to measure fossil fuel production, gained $6m in series A funding that included Formation 8, a VC firm backed by Asian corporates including electronics conglomerate LG Group.
UK-based Business Growth Fund, a bank-supported growth investment firm, has backed a merger of two geoscience businesses with $6.4m in funding. UK-based Task Geoscience and US-based Fronterra Integrated Geoscience merged to become Task-Fronterra Group and will have 10 offices throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region.
Industrial
Ultracapacitor developer Ioxus raised $21m in series C funding from the International Finance Corporation, the investment arm of the World Bank, and the Westly Group. This brings Ioxus’s funding to date to $57m.
Intel-backed Altia, a company developing panoramic camera technology for video and web collaboration, raised $10.5m in its series B round led by Intel Capital, the corporate venturing unit of the chip maker. The funds will be used to develop the PanaCast Experience, a product that consists of the PanaCast camera along with dedicated apps and cloud services.
Scutum, an electric scooter producer based in Spain, closed its series A funding round totalling $2.7m. Investors included oil and gas company Repsol, Caixa Capital Risc and Spanish state-owned Centre for Technological and Industrial Development.
Deals were tracked for Germany-based steel recycling company Scholz, India-based non-woven fabric manufacturer AIM Filtertech, US-based textile cleaning system provider CO2Nexus and Ethiopia-based paint and adhesive maker Kadisco Chemical Industry. No details were disclosed on investment levels.
Transport
High-Tech Gründerfonds, the early-stage investment firm backed by the German government and Germany-based companies, led a seed round for CarJump, an app that integrates multiple car-sharing providers into one app. The level of funding was not disclosed. CarJump plans to use the money to develop new products.