Volvo Cars, Corning and Cornes-backed lidar technology developer Luminar is merging with a special purpose acquisition vehicle to form a company with an expected $3.4bn valuation.
Author: Thierry Heles
Thierry Heles is editor-at-large of Global University Venturing and Global Corporate Venturing, and host of the Beyond the Breakthrough podcast.
SDIC slips $116m to Xuanzhu
China’s State Development and Investment Corporation has picked up an 18.6% stake in Sihuan Pharmaceutical’s drug development spinoff, Xuanzhu Biopharmaceutical.
Dataiku documents $100m series D round
CapitalG, which joined Dataiku’s shareholders through a secondary transaction last year, has now made its first primary investment in the data management software provider.
Lambda School lands $74m
Gigafund led a series C round for the GV and Stripe-backed online coding school to increase its overall funding to approximately $122m.
BlockFi builds $50m series C
Morgan Creek Digital has led a round that pushed digital currency product developer BlockFi’s total funding past the $160m mark.
Science 37 gets $40m result
Returning investor PPD co-led a $40m round for the remote clinical trials service, while Novartis, Amgen, Sanofi and Alphabet also doubled down on their commitments.
Dizal dips into $100m round
Dizal, co-founded by AstraZeneca three years ago to develop therapies for a broad range of diseases, pulled in $100m through a round led by Lilly Asia Ventures.
Reliance Industries swallows NetMeds
Reliance Industries has paid $82.6m for a majority stake in NetMeds, an online pharmacy that had raised $99m from backers including Daun Penh Cambodia Group and Sistema.
Take-Two connects to Playdots in $192m acquisition
Mobile game developer Playdots is being acquired six years after its only funding round, a $10m series A that included Tencent.
Attabotics attaches $50m to series C
Honeywell has returned for the warehouse robotics system developer’s latest round, having previously contributed to a $25m series B round together with Comcast.
D1 Capital hands $200m to Robinhood
The Alphabet and Roc Nation-backed share trading service boosted its valuation from $8.3bn to $11.2bn in the space of a month after series G funding from D1 Capital Partners.
American Express to eat up Kabbage
American Express will acquire the SoftBank, UPS, Santander and Recruit-backed business lender’s assets excluding its loan portfolio, for a reported price $350m lower than the valuation for its last round.
Palfish paddles its way to $120m
Online English language tutoring portal Palfish has welcomed back Susquehanna International Group for a series C round that will drive product development.
PayActiv triggers $100m series C
Ziegler Link-Age contributed to a round for SoftBank-backed financial wellness service PayActiv that increased its overall funding to $133m.