Weekly corporate venturing deal net 20-24 July 2015
Each Friday the Global Corporate Venturing Deal Net rounds up the week’s smaller deals and tracks the emerging companies accessing corporate funds.
Big Deal: FanDuel scores $275m
The fantasy sports platform has secured a range of media backers and is looking to expand its mobile offering in order to win what has become a two-horse race with rival DraftKings.
Fundraising
Fidelity makes three funds into Eight Roads
The financial services group has brought together Fidelity Growth Partners Europe, Fidelity Growth Partners Asia and Moonray Investors into a single entity and armed it with $233m.
$50m Newark fund receives Audible investment
The audiobook provider is among the limited partners of a fund that will invest in New Jersey-based startups alongside an accelerator programme.
Seraphim looks to the stars with $125m fund
The venture capital fund has enlisted Airbus, Thales, Telespazio, Com Dev and Avanti for a fund that will target companies working on space technology.
DCM ropes in corporates for $100m Android fund
The venture capital firm has secured Tencent, Naver, Baidu, Gree, Qualcomm and SoftBank as limited partners for its second A-Fund, formed to back Android app developers.
Exits
Microsoft to secure Adallom for $320m
Hewlett-Packard is set to exit cybersecurity company Adallom, which had raised almost $50m in total, in a $320m acquisition by Microsoft.
Oculus picks up Pebbles in $60m deal
Bosch, SanDisk and Xiaomi all exited motion sensor provider Pebbles Interfaces through an acquisition by virtual reality developer Oculus VR.
Google-backed Homejoy to close doors
The domestic cleaning service had raised $40m but will shut down at the end of this month due to ongoing legal struggles over the status of its workers.
Intel to benefit from AtHoc acquisition
Smartphone manufacturer Blackberry has agreed to acquire mass notification service AtHoc, which had raised about $8m in capital, providing an exit to Intel Capital.
Intel and Semtech unplug themselves from Powervation
The semiconductor companies have exited digital power technology producer Powervation, which had raised $40m, in a $70m acquisition by Rohm
IT
Chinac centres on Haitong for $100m
The data centre operator previously raised funding from Intel’s corporate venturing unit in February 2014.
Testin receives lucrative series C results
Testin raised $54.9m in a round that included IDG Capital Partners, an investor in the app and game testing company since its 2011 series A round.
Granular reaps $18.7m in series B harvest
The crop management software provider has closed its second Google-backed funding round in less than 18 months, having sold off its previous business to Monsanto.
Health
Cianna colours in cash reserves with $8m
The medical device producer has now raised $40m in financing altogether, having secured $4m in a Novo-backed equity round and $4m in debt from GE Capital.
Protagonist acts out $40m series C
All three of the biotechnology company’s corporate backers, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly and Pharmstandard, returned for its latest round, and it has now raised $67m in total.
Axial Healthcare avoids pain with $8m series A
Pain management company Axial has now raised almost $10m in less than a year from backers including insurer BlueCross BlueShield.
Oxford Nanopore detects $109m in funding
The molecular analysis technology developer, which counts Illumina among its investor base, has now raised almost $400m since it was founded in 2005.
Novo helps administer $33m to KalVista
The series B funding will help KalVista, a spin-out of Vantia Therapeutics, to advance treatments for diabetes and blood disease to clinical trials.
GenSight looks to series B for $36m
The Novartis-backed eye disease treatment developer, which filed to go public earlier this month, has now raised almost $78m from two equity rounds.
Roche helps inoculate SutroVax with $22m
SutroVax, a Sutro Biopharma spin-out that also counts Johnson & Johnson as an investor, will use the series A capital to further develop its biopharmaceutical vaccines.
The biopharmaceutical company has closed an oversubscribed round led by co-led by Merck and featured GlaxoSmithKline, Monsanto and Pfizer.
Novo pays tribute to Ra in $58.5m series B
Ra Pharmaceutical will use the proceeds from a series B round also backed by Novartis and Amgen to advance a blood disease treatment towards clinical studies.
ContinuumRx homes in on $13.5m
The Mitsui-backed home care service has now raised $20m altogether, and will use the proceeds from the NewSpring Capital-led round to expand into new markets.
Media
NewsHunt’s acquisition is Rocket Science
Rocket Science Innovations, which operates advertising platform BuyT, has been acquired by NewsHunt, providing an exit to digital marketing company Value-First.
Visual China has led 500px’s series B round, and plans to assist the CAA-backed photo sharing platform in its expansion into China and the Asia Pacific region.
Flipboard aggregates $50m for series D
The Comcast and Chernin Group-backed online media aggregator has revealed $50m in new equity capital, increasing its total funding to more than $210m.
MakeMyTrip boosts HolidayIQ with $15m investment
Online travel company MakeMyTrip paid $15m for a 28% stake in HolidayIQ, boosting the travel community platform’s total funding to $27m.
Jumei nutures BabyTree with $120m of convertible debt
The e-commerce company provided the convertible loan to online parenting community BabyTree as part of a larger $250m debt package.
SGN aims for next stage with $130m Netmarble investment
Korean game publisher is now US-based game studio SGN’s largest shareholder, and the two plan to help each other break into their respective markets.
SmarterHQ moves to $8m series B
Real estate company Simon Property Group led the round, which raised SmarterHQ’s overall combined equity and debt financing to more than $24m.
FishBrain hooks Recruit for $8m series A
FishBrain, the developer of a social media platform for anglers, has secured series A funding from investors including Recruit and will use the cash to expand to Japan.
Consumer
Sleepace puts $7m series B to rest
Retail chain Luolai led the sleep monitoring device maker’s series B round, which also featured funding from e-commerce company JD.com.
Baixing raises $354m but details remain classified
The classified listings site, an eBay spin-out, reportedly raised the capital in a series E round backed by Citic, Suzhou High-tech and Shenzhen Capital.
Zimplistic cooks up $11.5m series B
Robert Bosch joined existing investor NIS Ventures in funding Zimplistic, the developer of an automatic roti making machine.
Giosis, the eBay-backed owner of e-commerce marketplace Qoo10, raised the cash in a series A round led by media group Singapore Press Holdings.
Financial
Marlette, the operator of personal loan service Best Egg, has raised $75m from backers including student loans company Navient and is targeting $450m more in debt.
Ride sharing service Ola has participated in the mobile payments processing service’s series C round, which was led by hedge fund Falcon Edge.
Bima fundraising policy pays out $38m
Bima’s existing investors, including Millicom and Digicel, backed the insurance platform’s $38.4m series C round, taking its overall funding to more than $67m.
Clean-Tech
Sonnenbatterie charges up with Čez funding
Czech Republic-based utility Čez has invested an undisclosed amount in solar energy storage company Sonnenbatterie, which raised $9.4m in December.
Energy and Natural Resources
Investors pour $9.1m into Organica Water
Eletranova Capital, which is backed by EDF and Allianz, is among the investors in a series C round for the water treatment technology developer that so far stands at $9.1m.
Unilever spin-out Voltea, a developer of water desalination technology, raised the funding in a round also featuring industrial products maker Pentair.
Industrial
Corporates light up Sensity with $36m
The LED lighting-based sensor maker secured the series C capital from Cisco, Acuity Brands, General Electric and Simon Property Group.
Services
Survata gets $6m answer to series A question
IDG Ventures led the online survey company’s series A round, which also included a contribution from another corporate venturing fund, Bloomberg Beta.
Flipkart and Tiger Global have supplied $12m in series A cash for the home rental marketplace, which raised seed capital from investors including IDG.
Events.com greets investors to reach $17m
The online events platform, which counts DLA Piper and Grace Beauty among its investors, has closed a round that boosted its overall funding to $17m.