KR Space, the incubator run by China-based venture capital media company 36kr, has received an undisclosed amount of funding from investors including Colony Capital, Unity VC, Gobi Partners and angel investor Feng Ren, Tech in Asia reported on Monday. The incubator, which is present in eight Chinese cities, reportedly raised the cash at a RMB1bn ($152m) post-money valuation.
Financial services firm China Merchants Bank has provided an undisclosed amount of funding for China-based ride hailing company Didi Kuaidi, China Money Network reported on Tuesday. Other investors in Didi Kuaidi, which raised $3bn in September 2015 and about $4.5bn altogether, include e-commerce firm Alibaba, insurance group Ping An and internet company Tencent.
BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners, the corporate venturing vehicle for health insurance association Blue Cross Blue Shield, and venture capital partner Sandbox Advantage Fund provided $5m in series A financing for US-based identity protection software developer ID Experts yesterday. ID Experts is one of the preferred providers of ID protection services for the association and is working with several Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies.
Business IT services provider Zen Group led a funding round of undisclosed size for PanOpen, the US-based operator of a learning platform based on openly-licensed educational resources, on Tuesday that increased its overall financing to $4.5m. PanOpen intends to put the investment toward platform development and institutional outreach.
Peakon, the Denmark-based developer of a data analytics platform that helps employers understand their employees, launched on Tuesday with €4m ($4.3m) in funding from corporate-backed private equity fund Idinvest Partners and VC firm Sunstone Capital. It will spend the cash on product development in Copenhagen and expanding its sales and customer success teams in London.
Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC has invested an undisclosed sum in Little, the India-based deals discovery app backed by One97 Communications, according to the Economic Times. Little raised $50m in July 2015 from One97, the holding company for payment technology provider Paytm, as well as Tiger Global Management and SAIF Partners.
IT services provider Infosys has invested $4m in US-based data analysis technology developer Waterline Data Science, the Economic Times reported yesterday. Waterline had already raised $7m in an October 2014 series A round backed by Menlo Ventures and Sigma West, and Infosys’ stake will not be sized at more than 20%.
US-based autonomous vehicle software developer NuTonomy closed a $3.6m seed round featuring Samsung Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of electronics manufacturer Samsung, Signal Ventures, Fontinalis Partners and angel investor Steven LaValle yesterday. The capital will support development of NuTonomy’s software, which is currently being integrated and tested by US and European automotive partners.
Adaptive Symbiotic Technologies (AST), a US-based startup developing crop treatment agents to protect against drought or other damaging environmental conditions, has completed a $3.4m series A round led by agribusiness Twynam Agricultural Group. AST raised the money through specialist online investment platform AgFunder, and the round also included undisclosed impact investors.
Anagog, the Israel-based developer of a crowdsourced parking network, secured an undisclosed amount on Monday in a series A round led by signal component manufacturer GigOptix and backed by the founding partner of VC fund Ivy Capital and undisclosed existing shareholders. Anagog previously raised $1m in seed funding in 2014 from angel investors including Yos Shiran, Dan Vilensky and Avi Shechter.
Entertainment and media conglomerate Walt Disney Company has invested in a $3m series A round raised by Naritiv, a US-based startup that tracks and analyses advertising on social media platform Snapchat, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday. The round, which also included Third Wave Digital and Luminari Capital, followed a $1.2m seed round in which Third Wave and Luminari reportedly participated.
US-based small business accounting platform IP Commerce has raised an undisclosed sum in a series A round featuring Intel Capital and First Data Ventures, the corporate venturing subsidiaries of semiconductor technology provider Intel and payment technology provider First Data. The round also included Meritage Funds, Camp One Ventures, Augury Capital Partners and Service Provider Capital.
Nissay Capital, the venture capital representative of insurance firm Nippon Life, invested $1.7m in Japan-based workplace communication startup Oneteam on Monday. Founded in February 2015, OneTeam received $480,000 in seed funding from CyberAgent Ventures, the corporate venturing subsidiary of internet company CyberAgent, three months later.
Cisco Investments, which acts as networking technology provider Cisco’s corporate venturing arm, has invested an undisclosed amount in Kii, the US-based creator of a platform for the development of internet of things technology. Kii’s past investors include financial services firm Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Visionnaire Ventures, Jafco, Asset Management Ventures, Neostella Capital and Fenox Venture Capital.
India-based home automation technology startup Wizn Systems has raised an undisclosed sum in an angel round led by manufacturing services provider Foxconn, the Economic Times reported on Thursday. Angel investors Rahul Chowdhri and Kanwaljit Singh also took part in the round, which was raised alongside a strategic partnership agreement that will lead to Foxconn producing Wizn’s initial hardware.
US-based in-home and video-based primary care provider RetraceHealth closed an early-stage funding round on Monday backed by health insurance provider Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, care provider HealthEast Care System (Minnesota) and McKesson Ventures, the strategic investment arm of healthcare IT and services firm McKesson. MedCity News sized the round at $1m.
Malaysia-based personalised e-commerce service Belazee has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a pre-series A round co-led by gaming company DeNA and Fenox Venture Capital that also included Rimu Group, Tech in Asia reported on Tuesday. Belazee runs what it calls a conversational commerce platform, enabling users to chat to someone from an online retailer that will find and deliver the product for which they are looking.
Germany-based encryption software startup ZenMate raised an undisclosed amount of funding on Wednesday from Holtzbrinck Ventures, the VC firm spun out of publisher Georg von Holtzbrinck, Project A and Bessemer Venture Partners. Holtzbrinck and Project A also took part in a $3.2m round closed by ZenMate in October 2014 that included T-Venture, the corporate venturing arm of Deutsche Telekom, and Shortcut Ventures that took its overall funding to $4.5m.
Reliance Capital, the financial services subsidiary of conglomerate Reliance Group, has acquired a 9.6% stake in India-based Radiant Hues CRM Solutions, the holding company for online luxury goods retailer Luxehues.com. Reliance plans to invest a total of Rs 46m ($680,000) for a 14.1% share by May 2017, according to VCCircle.
SeNostic, a Germany-based startup developing diagnostic tests for neurodegenerative diseases, closed a seed round of undisclosed size on Monday led by corporate-backed VC fund High-Tech Gruenderfonds. The round followed pre-seed financing from Mittelständischen Beteiligungsgesellschaft, an investment firm funded by the German state of Lower Saxony.
Ramco Systems, an IT consultancy subsidiary of conglomerate Ramco Group, agreed on Monday to pay approximately $220,000 for an 18.9% stake in India-based cloud enterprise software developer Smartmegh Solutions. The two companies were already strategic partners, and the investment will precipitate a more expansive tie-up in future.