Allakos, a US-based developer of antibodies to treat diseases that involve the excess production of inflammatory cells, received $10m on Tuesday from existing investors Novo Ventures and Roche Ventures, which act as the corporate venturing units of pharmaceutical companies Novo and Roche respectively, Alta Partners and RiverVest Venture Partners. The funding follows a $32m series A round raised in December 2012.
Broadcaster BskyB invested $5m in US-based native advertising company Sharethrough on Monday as part of a $10m series D round that also included existing backers Floodgate, Elevation Partners, North Bridge Venture Partners and Silver Creek Ventures. Sharethrough, which has now secured $38m in equity funding since it was founded, claims it has almost doubled revenue and increased its workforce by 50% over the past year.
CME Group, the owner of futures exchanges in Chicago and New York, led a $9.7m series D round for US-based payment software producer Dwolla on Tuesday that also included existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures and Village Ventures. Past backers of Dwolla, which has now raised about $32m in total, include Thrive Capital and BetterWorks.
Semafone, a UK-based provider of fraud prevention software, secured £5m ($8.1m) of growth capital on Thursday from bank-backed venture fund Business Growth Fund and Octopus Investments. BGF contributed £4m of the funding, with the remaining £1m coming from Octopus, which invested $2.8m in Semafone in 2010, and other existing shareholders.
Travador, a Germany-based company that sells event and adventure-based holidays, raised $7m on Wednesday in series A funding from Orange and Publicis-backed VC firm Iris Capital, its investment partner Capnamic Ventures and XAnge Private Equity The start-up plans to now expand geographically while consolidating its growth in German speaking European countries.
US-based medical diagnostics company Adarza BioSystems has closed its series A round at $6.8m after receiving a $4m second tranche co-led by Siemens Venture Capital, the strategic investment unit of industrial conglomerate Siemens and Cultivation Capital, St Louis Business Journal reported on Thursday. The round also included BioGenerator, St. Louis Arch Angels, Missouri Technology Corp, Serra Capital and several St. Louis-based angel investors.
Navdy, the US-based developer of an in-car display system to assist drivers, raised $6.5m on Thursday from a seed round featuring Wareness.io, the incubator run by marketing company VSC, as well as Upfront Ventures, Ludlow Ventures, Lightbank, Promus Ventures, Mesa+ and Eniac Ventures. The round, which was 3x oversubscribed, will support the hiring of additional staff and the scaling up of Navdy’s manufacturing plans.
Japan-based accounting software developer Freee has received $6m in a second tranche of its series B round from Recruit Strategic Partners, the corporate venturing arm of human resources company Recruit, and investment firm Pavilion Capital. Freee has now raised approximately $16.7m across three rounds, and previous investors include DCM and Infinity Venture Partners.
Software provider Citrix invested an undisclosed amount in AnyPresence, the US-based developer of a cloud-based mobile platform, on Tuesday as part of a $6m series B round backed by CNF Investments, Kinetic Ventures and Grotech Ventures. AnyPresence, which previously raised $7.5m from Kinetic and Grotech across two rounds, will invest the cash in sales and marketing support for strategic partners that are offering its technology to businesses.
Food52, a US-based content and commerce platform for chefs and other food lovers, raised $6m on Tuesday in a series A round from investors including Scripps Networks Interactive, the media company that owns the Food Network, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments (BDMI), a subsidiary of media company Bertelsmann, Walden Venture Capital, Vocap Investment Partners and Vayner RSE. Food52 had previously received $2.75m in funding from backers including BDMI.
Shufti, a Japan-based company that enables women to work from home as freelancers, has raised $5.75m from wedding organisation website Minna no Wedding and Nissay Capital, The Bridge reported on Wednesday. The company, which targets housewives, has built a user base totalling more than 76,000.
Israel-based sports score provider 365Scores has secured $5.5m in series B funding from Leta Capital, the corporate venturing fund operated by IT management company Leta Group, Cedar Fund, Titanium Investments and several undisclosed private investors, TechCrunch reported on Monday. The company previously raised $1.2m from Cedar Fund in January 2013.
Building Robotics, a US-based developer of cloud-based software to help make buildings more comfortable, said on Thursday it had raised $5.5m in series A financing co-led by Claremont Creek Ventures and The Westly Group, though an SEC filing three days before indicated the company had raised $6.7m. It previously received $1.1m in a June 2013 seed round backed by Google Ventures, which acts as the corporate venturing fund for internet company Google, Formation 8, Navitas Capital, Red Swan Ventures and Claremont Creek.
Apptentive, the US-based developer of a software platform that enables companies to communicate with their customers, has closed a $5.3m series A round co-led by online survey service SurveyMonkey and venture capital firm Origin Ventures. The round also included Founders Co-op and Golden Venture Partners, both of which contributed to Apptentive’s $1.2m seed round in 2012 as part of a syndicate including Google Ventures.
Qualcomm Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of wireless technology company Qualcomm, has provided an undisclosed amount of series B funding for India-based traffic monitoring service Birds Eye Systems, Telecom Lead reported on Tuesday. Birds Eye, which raised an undisclosed sum from Matrix Partners in December 2013, will use the cash to develop its product, expand geographically and boost its marketing.
MiDrive, the UK-based developer of an app that helps users learn to drive, has closed a £2m ($3.2m) series A round backed by online travel company Holiday Extras and MBM Capital Partners, TechCrunch reported on Monday. The cash will be used to expand the start-up’s team, and to expand both in the UK and internationally.
Holtzbrinck Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of publishing company Georg von Holtzbrinck, led a $3.2m series A round for Germany-based internet security start-up ZenMate on Wednesday. The round also featured T-Venture, which acts as telecommunications firm Deutsche Telekom’s strategic investment subsidiary, Shortcut Ventures and Project A Ventures. Project A provided seed funding for ZenMate in October 2013 along with backers including digital publisher Axel Springer’s Plug and Play Accelerator.
Growth equity firm Georgian Partners joined investors including Wells Fargo-backed VC firm Norwest Venture Partners, Insight Venture Partners, GIC, and Lead Edge Capital in backing Canada-based cloud education technology company iParadigms on Thursday. The amount invested by Norwest was not disclosed.
UK-based adaptive learning technology developer CogBooks raised £1.75m ($2.8m) from DC Thomson Ventures, media group DC Thomson’s corporate venturing unit, as well as Scottish state-backed fund Scottish Investment Bank and Nesta Impact Investments. Scottish Investment Bank had previously funded CogBooks through its Scottish Seed Fund.
Intel Capital, semiconductor maker Intel’s corporate venturing fund, has invested an undisclosed amount in Japan-based online payment technology developer Empathy Co. The capital will support growth by improving the start-up’s development capacity and sales channels.
Hipcamp, a US-based search platform for campsites, has secured $2m in a seed round co-led by O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of O’Reilly Media, and VC firm Slow Ventures, TechCrunch reported on Tuesday. The round also included Maiden Lane Ventures, the AngelList-owned Syndicate Fund, Sam Shank and Gregg Brockway.
Telecommunications company NTT invested ¥200m ($1.8m) in Japan-based big data technology provider Preferred Networks on Wednesday. The funding, which gave NTT a stake in Preferred Networks of less than 10%, will support the development of a platform that can process vast amounts of data sourced from the internet of things.
US-based meeting room scheduling app Eventboard raised $1.5m on Tuesday in a seed round featuring Google Ventures, Zetta Venture Partners and assorted angel investors. The start-up’s app is already used by more than 500 companies, including Disney, Airbnb and Box.
Ayannah, a Philippines-based provider of banking services to migrants from developing nations, raised $1.5m on Thursday, Tech in Asia reported. The investors were Gree Ventures, the investment unit for internet media company Gree, incubators Beenos, Wavemaker Labs and Golden Gate Ventures, and VC firm IMJ Investment Partners. Wavemaker and Golden Gate previously invested $1m in Ayannah last year.
Y Soft Venture Capital, the corporate venturing arm of print system management company Y Soft, and venture capital firm Credo Ventures provided €1m ($1.3m) in series A funding for Czech Republic-based computer graphics technology developer Comprimato on Monday. The companies previously invested €200,000 in Comprimato in October 2013.
Kurio, the Indonesia-based developer of a news app for use on smartphones, has received an undisclosed amount of series A funding from CyberAgent Ventures, the corporate venturing subsidiary of internet company CyberAgent, as well as additional undisclosed investors, DailySocial reported on Monday. The capital, reportedly close to a seven-figure dollar sum, will be used for product development and recruitment.
GE Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of industrial conglomerate General Electric, together with crowdfunding platform OurCrowd, invested $1m in MedAware, an Israel-based developer of big data analytics technology for the medical prescription market, on Thursday. The investment is the first jointly made by the two backers since they signed a strategic partnership agreement in November 2013.
Roost, a smart home start-up currently operating in stealth mode, has raised $975,000 from Legend Star, a subsidiary of conglomerate Legend Holdings, and DCM Partners, GigaOM reported on Thursday. The company’s product is reported to be a retrofit for a common household device that would enable it to become connected for under $50.
BskyB invested $700,000 in US-based television streaming service Roku on Thursday, while entertainment company 21st Century Fox concurrently invested an undisclosed amount. Prior to the funding, Roku had raised approximately $127m from backers including BskyB, media companies News Corporation and Hearst, Fidelity Investments, Globespan Capital Partners and Menlo Ventures.