On-demand ride service Uber has taken an equity stake of undisclosed size in US-based mobile car buying platform Fair.com as part of a deal that involved Fair acquiring Uber’s vehicle leasing business, Xchange Leasing, the Wall Street Journal has reported. Fair will take more than 30,000 vehicles with a book value of about $400m through the transaction according to the WSJ, which cited an internal document.
Topgolf Entertainment Group, the US-based operator of a string of golf-themed entertainment venues, received an undisclosed sum on Tuesday from golfing equipment producer Callaway Golf Company as well as financial services group Fidelity Management and Research Company and existing backers WestRiver Group, Providence Equity Partners and private investor Thomas Dundon. The company had previously raised approximately $149m in equity financing between 2011 and 2014, according to securities filings.
Property management firm JLL has led a $3.8m round for Foyr, the India-based creator of a software platform that can visualise domestic spaces, Press Trust of India reported on Tuesday. Foyr had received an undisclosed amount of funding from JLL’s India Real Estate Technology Ventures unit in October 2016, after securing $1.5m from Brick Eagle in February 2015 and $940,000 in a round led by Astarc Ventures, the investment arm of automotive imaging technology provider Astarc, three months later, back when it was still known as Renderlogy.
Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, part of diversified Japan-headquartered trading group Sumitomo, has invested an undisclosed amount in Rivian, the US-based developer of an autonomous electric vehicle. Rivian raised $1.25m in debt financing across 2011 and 2012, according to regulatory filings, but has not disclosed any equity funding.
Sistema Venture Capital, a corporate venturing vehicle for diversified conglomerate Sistema, has led a $2.2m funding round for UK-based chemistry education startup Mel Science, CNBC has reported. Sistema VC had previously invested $2.5m in the company, which began by shipping chemistry sets to familes through a subscription package before branching out into virtual reality content for schools, in October 2016.
United Arab Emirates-based online office supplies provider OfficeRock has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from investors including internet company Jabbar Internet Group, Entrepreneur Middle East reported on Wednesday. The round also featured Enabling Future, Wamda Capital, Womena, Camac Partners and undisclosed angel investors, the same backers having provided $500,000 of seed funding for the company in April 2016.
IT services firm Wipro has provided approximately $2.1m of funding for Imanis Data, the US-based data recovery and backup services provider formerly known as Talena, taking its total investment in the company to $4.1m, LiveMint has reported, citing a stock exchange filing. Founded in 2013, the company emerged from stealth two years later with $12m of funding from investors including Wipro Ventures and Intel Capital, respective subsidiaries of Wipro and chipmaker Intel, as well as Canaan Partners and Onset Ventures.
Reinsurance firm Grinnell Mutual has led a seed round sized at approximately $1.3m for FindBob, the Canada-based developer of a platform that helps financial advisors transfer their book of business. It was joined by Mars Investment Accelerator Fund, Ames Seed Capital, Global Insurance Accelerator and undisclosed angel investors from Canada and the US.