Corporate venturing deal net: 10 – 14 July 2017
Each Friday the Global Corporate Venturing Deal Net rounds up the week’s smaller deals and tracks the emerging companies accessing corporate funds.
Fundraising
Toyota Research Institute revs up $100m fund
Carmaker Toyota’s research division has put $100m into a unit called Toyota AI Ventures and disclosed its first three portfolio companies.
Google angles AI investments toward Gradient
Newly formed corporate venturing unit Gradient Ventures plans to back up to 15 artificial intelligence startups this year, investing up to $8m a time.
Global Brain heads for $180m close
The VC firm’s sixth fund has achieved a final close slightly above its $175m target, with limited partners including corporates such as JTB and Sumitomo Forestry.
Partech Ventures packs corporates into $455m fund
Accenture, Cisco, Nokia, Adecco, L’Oréal, and Unibail have helped the VC firm close its seventh venture capital fund, taking its total fundraising near to €1bn in the past 18 months.
Travis Perkins invites startups to make Breakthru
The building materials retail group has launched an accelerator called Breakthru that will invest in and mentor health and safety, digitalisation and customer service startups.
Fosun Kinzon Capital becomes Fosun RZ Capital
The corporate venturing unit has rebranded following the departure a year ago of chairman Wang Jun in order to form a fund called Kinzon Capital.
Autotech closes corporate-backed fund at $120m
Corporates including Denso, Mahle and Murata Manufacturing have joined existing backers like BorgWarner and Autoliv to take the ground transport-focused firm’s first fund to $120m.
Samsung Next embarks on European trip
Samsung’s $150m ‘frontier tech’ fund has opened its first European office in Berlin, six months after initially launching.
IAG constructs Hangar 51 in Spain
Hangar 51, the aviation technology accelerator formed by International Airlines Group in London last year, has been expanded to Spain.
Sancor Seguros to support startups through new fund
The Argentina-based insurance provider plans to back up to 32 startups through a newly formed fund which will form part of a $45.5m investment drive.
Gouvêa de Souza swings to Bossa Nova
The marketing and retail consultancy has teamed up with Bossa Nova Investimentos to support and invest in startups through a $1.9m initiative called GS&UP.
People
Straus strikes up for GE Ventures role
Jessica Straus has joined the corporate venturing unit as an entrepreneur-in-residence
Exits
Baidu has paid an undisclosed amount to acquire Kitt.Ai, an Amazon Alexa Fund-backed AI language technology developer.
Fireglass to melt into Symantec
Symantec has agreed to acquire Fireglass, a cybersecurity technology developer backed by Singtel Innov8, for an undisclosed amount.
Uber and Yandex Taxi join forces
The ride hailing services will merge operations in six European countries and jointly invest $325m in the new entity at a $3.73bn valuation.
Roku, which first considered a flotation almost three years ago, is said to have hired underwriters for an initial public offering that could value it at up to $1bn.
FanDuel and DraftKings forfeit merger plans
The daily fantasy sports platforms, which counts Alphabet, Comcast, Time Warner, Fox and Kraft Group among their investors, have withdrawn from merger plans agreed in November.
SoftBank completes Fortress takeover for $3.3bn
The telecom and internet group has had its proposed acquisition of Fortress Investment Group, an asset manager with some VC investments, approved by the latter’s shareholders.
Symantec finds Skycure in $250m acquisition
New York Life is set to exit mobile threat detection platform Skycure, which has agreed to an acquisition by Symantec for a reported $250m.
IT
Lastline draws corporates for series C
Malware protection software developer Lastline took its overall funding to almost $50m in a $28.5m round backed by Barracuda Networks, WatchGuard Technologies and NTT Finance.
SenseTime schedules closure of $410m series B
The figure includes previously reported tranches of $120m in December and $60m in April 2017, the former featuring conglomerate Dalian Wanda.
TrueSpeed connects to Aviva for $96m
Aviva has injected $96m into TrueSpeed Communications to support the broadband infrastructure provider’s roll out across south west England.
Engage3 prices series B at $12m
The retail pricing intelligence platform has secured series B funding, three years after raising capital from Swift Communications and McClatchy Company.
Squirro scurries to $10m series B
Salesforce Ventures has invested a part of a round that will enable the data intelligence software provider to strengthen R&D and expand in new and existing markets.
Worldsensing picks up Cisco for series B
Existing backer Cisco Investments came back to contribute to a $9.5m round for the industrial sensor developer, which also counts Mitsui as a shareholder.
Flashpoint fires up $28m series C
Bloomberg Beta and Cisco Investments each made their third investment in the business risk intelligence software provider, which has now raised $43m in total.
Deep Instinct feels out Nvidia to raise $32m
The deep learning-based cybersecurity technology developer has received series B funding from investors including Nvidia.
HyTrust hits series E with $36m
Advance Venture Partners has led a funding round for cloud security company HyTrust, while existing shareholders Cisco, Intel, Fortinet and VMWare all returning.
Darktrace draws up $75m series D
The immune system-based cybersecurity software provider, which counts the SoftBank and Indosat-backed SB Isat fund, has now raised about $180m in total.
Nok Nok alerts corporates in $8m series D
Motorola Solutions Venture Capital led the ID authentication technology provider’s latest round, which included Lenovo, Korea Information Certificate Authority, DDS and Docomo Innovations.
Health
Corporates elevate Evelo series B to $50m
Monoclonal microbial developer Evelo Biosciences has completed a $50m round featuring GV, Celgene and Mayo Clinic that followed a $35m series A in 2015.
Qiagen Suzhou translates $25m series A
The precision medicine company, set up by molecular biology company Qiagen and science park BioBay, will use the money to transition towards a full-fledged products company.
Cisco provides $100,000 for Project Vive
Speech generation device developer Project Vive is the grand prize winner at the Cisco Global Problem Solver Challenge.
Biovotion tracks corporates to close series A
The vital signs tracker developer has raised $13.5m in an oversubscribed round that included corporates Swiss Re and STMicroelectronics.
E-Scape Bio expands series A to $63m
Novo, Johnson and Johnson, Eli Lilly and Novartis are all participants in the neurodegenerative disease drug developer’s first funding round.
Solera swallows $18.3m in series B funding
Chronic disease prevention platform Solera Health has now raised more than $30m in total, after raising funding from backers including Blue Cross Blue Shield Venture Partners.
Media
Hudl welcomes back Nelnet to raise $30m
Nelnet, which backed the sports video analysis platform’s last round in 2015, has joined its fellow series A investors to add another $30m in funding.
Axa detects Qloo in $6.5m round
Marketing data platform Qloo has now raised approximately $14m altogether, having completed a round that included Axa Strategic Ventures.
Consumer
Consumer products platform Brandless launches with $50m
Brandless, the developer of an online budget supermarket, has emerged from stealth with $50m, $35m of which came in a recently closed series B round.
Yamibuy yanks in $10m from series A
New Oriental Education and Technology Group has participated in a round for Yamibuy, which sells Asian consumer items to North America-based customers.
TAL Group maximises Metail investment
Online clothing modelling platform Metail has received $12.9m from TAL Group, which had teamed with Perform Group to invest $12m in the company three years ago.
Financial
Deutsche Börse bonds with Trumid with $10m investment
The exchange operator has added $10m to the $28m Creditease-backed series C round closed by electronic bond trading platform Trumid in March.
CompareAsiaGroup finds the right investors to raise $50m
Alibaba and SBI Group have come on board as investors, in a series B round that boosted the Southeast Asian financial comparison platform’s total funding to about $95m.
Curve turns Santander interest into $10m round
Santander InnoVentures has made a strategic investment in Curve, the developer of a payment card that links to multiple accounts, as part of a $10m series A round.
Tata-backed Innoviti has secured new funding in a round led by a fund backed by financial services providers SBI and FMO.
Autolotto wins $17m in series A round
Gatehouse Media and iHeartMedia provided cash and media assets through the round, which will support the mobile lottery platform’s global expansion.
Hairongyi charges to $29.5m in series A
Financial services platform developer Hairongyi has raised capital from investors including a subsidiary of consumer electronics producer Haier.
Energy and Natural Resources
Advanced Microgrid Solutions stores away $34m
AGL Energy, Southern Company and GE Ventures were among the participants in a series B round that took energy optimisation company AMS’s total equity funding to $52m.
Industrial
NewLeaf Symbiotics sows $24m series C
The agricultural product developer has doubled its overall equity funding, closing a round led by corporate venturing unit Monsanto Growth Ventures.
Inpria impresses in series B round
The semiconductor manufacturing component maker secured $23.5m, with Samsung Ventures, JSR Corporation, Aliad, Applied Ventures and Intel Capital all investing.
UMC conducts investment in CerebrEx
UMC subsidiary Fortune Venture Capital has teamed up with INCJ for a $7.1m secondary investment in flat-panel display technology developer CerebrEx.
Transport
The Alibaba-led series E round has proven the latest milestone for China’s rapidly growing bike sharing sector as its biggest players look to move into foreign streets.
Shouqi Limousine and Chauffeur collects $88m
The chauffeured ride service, formed by Shouqi Group and Xianglong Taxi, has raised $88m from an unnamed investor at a $750m valuation.
Services
The co-working space provider has raised $760m at a reported $20bn valuation, just three months after receiving $300m in funding from SoftBank.
Chengjia Apartment books $50m in funding
Huazhu Hotels has co-led a funding round with IDG Capital, two years after the two co-founded the apartment rental service.