AAA Alibaba, Tencent, Nokia cash in on China activity

Alibaba, Tencent, Nokia cash in on China activity

As well as investing in the biggest investments, Alibaba also secured the biggest exits, after it acquired China based digital map service AutoNavi for $1.5bn, having earlier backed it. Alibaba was also a big investor in China-based microblogging platform Weibo, which raised $285.6m in an initial public offering (IPO).

Nokia Growth Partners also secured a big exit with UCWeb, a mobile browser company with 500 million users, selling it to China-based Alibaba for a multi-billion dollar sum.

China-based technology company Tencent secured big wins from the IPO of JD.com, a China-based e-com- merce company, and the sale of China-based games developer Elex Technology to publishing firm Chinese Universe Publishing and Media for $433m.

Take-Two Interactive Software, a developer, publisher and distributor of computer games, was a big winner, after its portfolio company Twitch, a US-based live-video streaming service, was sold to YouTube for $1bn.

Norwest, the venturing unit of US bank Wells Fargo, secured exits including a $500m sale of US-based satellite imaging company Skybox, and MobileIron, a US-based developer of mobile device management software, which raised $100m in an IPO. Google Ventures was also an investor in Skybox.

Qualcomm Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of the US-based semiconductor company, secured exits including the sale of Divide to US-based search engine Google, and the $300m sale of Wilocity to Qualcomm.

SAP Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of the Germany-based software company, secured multiple exits, including the sale of business intelligence software producer Jaspersoft in a $184m deal to infrastructure software company Tibco Software. Jaspersoft was also backed by technology companies Red Hat and Quest Software.

Other exits included the $100m sale of a majority stake in Payscale, a US-based salary database company, and the IPOs of Five9, a US-based provider of cloud-based software, and Imprivata, a provider of authentication and security services for hospitals.

China-based electronics company Foxconn and Steamboat Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of Walt Disney, were both winners in the IPO of camera maker GoPro, which raised $427m.

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