Bertelsmann India Investments, a subsidiary of media group Bertelsmann, has co-led a $10m funding round for India-based short-form video streaming platform Roposo with hedge fund manager Tiger Global Management, YourStory reported on Tuesday. The company had previously received $21m in funding from investors including $15m from Bertelsmann India Investments and Tiger Global in 2016, and its earlier backers include India Quotient and angel investor Binny Bansal.
US-based pop-up hotel operator WhyHotel received $10m in series A funding on Tuesday from investors including Camber Creek, the investment vehicle for real estate developer Berman Enterprises. The round was led by Highland Capital Partners and included MetaProp, Geolo Capital, Mendacre and Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, and follows $3.9m in a June 2018 round led by Camber Creek and backed by real estate platform Vornado/Charles E. Smith, Rise of the Rest, Mendacre, MetaProp and Working Lab Capital.
Luminoso, a US-based developer of customer data analytics technology, has completed a $10m series B round led by early-stage investment firm DVI Equity Partners that included Liberty Global Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of mass media group Liberty Global, financial service provider Raptor Holdco, DF Enterprises, Acadia Woods Partners, Accord Ventures and undisclosed others. The round took Luminoso’s total funding to almost $31m in total, its past investors including internet company Digital Garage and SD Porter Holdings.
Germany-based embedded processor technology provider Codasip has secured $10m in series A funding from investors including data storage technology producer Western Digital. The corporate was joined by Ventech Capital, Shenzhen Capital Group, Paua Ventures and Credo Ventures, and came after a $2.8m round led by Credo in 2014. Codasip will use the proceeds for product development while looking to hire more sales and support staff.
Internet group Tencent has provided an undisclosed amount of series C-plus funding for Shanghai Youluoke Electronic and Technology, a China-based retail analytics and data technology producer, China Money Network has reported. Venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers had invested more than $4m in the company in 2013, according to China Money Network, before state-owned holding company China Merchants Group led its $11.5m series C round in January this year.
Legend Capital, the VC firm formed by conglomerate Legend Holdings, has led a series C round of undisclosed size for China-based pharmaceutical services provider Safe Pharmaceutical Research Institute, China Money Network reported on Wednesday. The firm’s investment came after it closed a $157m healthcare fund in May this year.
Myia Health, the US-based creator of a health monitoring system for chronically ill patients that utilises data from wearable devices, has raised $6.75m in seed funding from investors including consulting firm Boston Consulting Group. BootstrapLabs and Zetta Venture Partners co-led the round, which also featured American College of Cardiology, which is partnering the company.
Audiobyte, the US-based owner of audio and visual content integration tool Gifnote, closed a $6m series A round on Monday featuring DG Incubation, an early-stage investment subsidiary of Digital Garage. The round was led by Evolution VC Partners and included Northwood Ventures, Neoteny 4 and angel investors Brett Berish, Andrew McKee and Michael Shalett. The company, which was previously known as Rednote, had raised $5.9m from investors including Northwood between July 2016 and August 2017.
BlockFi, the US-based operator of a crypto-to-cash lending platform, secured $4m on Wednesday in a convertible debt round led by trading firm Akuna Capital that included Susquehanna Government Products, likely an affiliate of quantitative trading firm Susquehanna International Group; CMT Digital, part of trading firm CM Group; Recruit Strategic Partners, a vehicle for human resources firm Recruit; Galaxy Digital Ventures, Morgan Creek Digital and Devonshire Investors. The startup has now raised $58m in total.
Vyng, the US-based developer of a tool that allows users to set video ringtones on their phones, received $4m yesterday in a series A round co-led by Omidyar Network India and March Capital Partners and backed by Alpha Edison and Entrepreneur Fund. March Capital led Vyng’s $3m seed round in October 2017, which reportedly included Manatt Digital, part of law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, and Gaspar Global as well as Bam Ventures, HOF Capital, Inspiration Ventures and angel investors Alex Chung, Steve Martocci and Mark Goldston, before Indian Angel Network invested an undisclosed sum in February 2018.
Farm Note Holdings, the Japan-based creator of connected dairy data platform Farmnote, raised ¥400m ($3.5m) from investors including DG Incubation as well as Real Tech Fund, FFG Venture Business Partners, TechCrunch Japan reported last month. The company had previously received $6.3m across two rounds, from corporates Sumitomo, Gree and Kanematsu, financial services firm Norinchukin Bank, Innovation Network Corporation of Japan and National Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Associations.
Qualcomm Ventures, the corporate venturing vehicle for wireless technology producer Qualcomm, has invested in India-based domestic services marketplace Housejoy as part of a $3.2m bridge round led by Matrix Partners and backed by Vertex Ventures, RTP Ventures, Saama Capital and private investor Ganesh Krishnan, the Economic Times reported yesterday. It had previously raised $26.5m from Qualcomm Ventures, Matrix, Vertex, e-commerce firm Amazon, Ru-Net and Temasek across series A and B rounds.
Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, the strategic investment subsidiary of medical product group Johnson & Johnson, provided an undisclosed amount of funding for US-based health data management and communication platform developer MultiScale Health Networks on Wednesday. MultiScale is a joint venture formed by hospital operator Providence Health Systems and data centre operator Sabey Corporation, which has previously supplied it with an undisclosed amount of equity financing.
Toyota AI Ventures, a corporate VC vehicle for carmaker Toyota, participated in a $2.65m seed round last month for Parallel Domain, a US-based developer of technology that uses virtual reality to ‘teach’ autonomous driving software, the unit’s managing director Jim Adler has revealed in a blog post. VC firms Costanoa Ventures and Ubiquity Ventures also invested as part of the round.
Kets Quantum Security, a UK-based quantum-secured communications technology developer, raised £2m ($2.5m) in funding from investors including data processing technology provider Kx on Tuesday. The round also featured Quantonation, and Innovate UK and the UK’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund supplied a combined £1m.
Financial services group Citi invested an undisclosed amount in UK-based data privacy technology developer Privitar on Monday. The company had previously raised $20.9m in funding including $16m in a July 2017 series A round led by Partech that included Salesforce Ventures and CME Ventures, respective subsidiaries of customer relationship management software producer Salesforce and exchange operator CME, in addition to IQ Capital, Illuminate Financial and 24Haymarket.
M12, software provider Microsoft’s corporate venturing subsidiary, has provided $2m each for US-based computer sketching tool developer Mental Canvas and Acerta, the Canada-based creator of an artificial intelligence system that tracks a vehicle’s ongoing health. The deals were announced on Tuesday, when the startups won the Female Founders Competition M12 ran in partnership with EQT Ventures and SVB Financial.
ViAqua, an Israel-based aquaculture technology developer that counts animal and aquatic creature feed provider Nutreco as an investor, has received an undisclosed amount from VC fund VisVires New Protein, AgFunder News reported on Wednesday. Nutreco invested an undisclosed sum in the company in July this year, and its other earlier investors are Technion Institute of Technology and Trendlines, according to AgFunder.
Online classified listings operator Info Edge has paid Rs 134m ($1.8m) for a 15.5% stake in Shopkirana, the India-based operator of a business-to-business e-commerce platform, Moneycontrol has reported. The investment was part of a $2m round also featuring mobile game developer Akatsuki’s AET Fund, Incubate Fund and the Better Capital AngelList syndicate, according to Entrackr, and it comes after an undisclosed amount of pre-series A funding from Incubate Fund, Lead Angels and unnamed additional investors in December 2016.
Unilever Ventures, the corporate venturing subsidiary of consumer goods manufacturer Unilever, has provided an undisclosed amount of series A funding for Pureplay Skin Sciences, the India-based owner of vegan cosmetics retail brand Plum, VCCircle reported on Tuesday. Pureplay founder Shankar Prasad had previously been a manager at Unilever’s Indian subsidiary, Hindustan Unilever, from 1997 to 2005.
Jordan-based educational content supplier Little Thinking Minds has received approximately $1.3m in series A funding from investors including oil and gas services provider Al Turki Group, Wamda has reported. Algebra Ventures led the round, which also featured fellow VC firm Mindshift Capital, and the company’s earlier investors include seed-stage fund Oasis 500. It will use the funding to enhance its platform and expand its product range.
Financial services firm JPMorgan Chase has led a seed round of undisclosed size for Trovata, the US-based creator of an automation software platform for financial data. The funding was disclosed alongside news that Trovata is partnering JPMorganChase and mobile payment software provider Square to pilot its technology.
Magazine publisher Summit Media has led a $1.2m funding round for Kumu, the Philippines-based operator of a livestreaming app, Tech in Asia has reported. Foxmont Capital Partners, Two Culture Capital and angel investors Scott Hartley and Jove Schrottmann also participated in the round, which came after an investment of undisclosed size in the startup by Summit Media owner Lisa Gokongwei-Cheng.
US-based digital design technology developer Movellus raised an undisclosed amount of funding on Wednesday from Intel Capital, the corporate venturing subsidiary of semiconductor and data technology producer Intel. The company had received an undisclosed sum from Intel Capital as part of a $72m investment in a total of 12 companies by the unit that was disclosed in May this year, and it had raised a total of $1.9m in convertible note financing across three rounds as of the month before, according to regulatory filings.
Mail.Ru Games Ventures, a corporate VC subsidiary of internet company Mail.Ru, hs invested undisclosed amounts in Russia-based game developers Game Garden, Mobirate, Red Brix Wall and Zillion Whales, East-West Daily News has reported. The $100m fund was launched in April 2017 and its earlier investments include deals for Panzerdog and Bit.Games.
Lighting equipment manufacturer Luminance Brands supplied $1m in seed funding for Atmos Home, the US-based developer of a smart home control system called AtmosControl, on Wednesday. It made the investment in connection with a collaboration agreement that will involve Atmos Home helping it integrate smart technology into its existing range of lighting products.
PerkFinance, an India-based provider of salary-linked consumer financing, has secured $900,000 in seed capital from investors including Fosun RZ Capital, the corporate venturing arm of diversified conglomerate Fosun, IndiaInfoOnline reported on Tuesday. Angel investors Eric Bunting, Krishna Vinjamuri and Karan Virwani also contributed to the round.
Management consultancy Synpulse Management Consulting invested CHF450,000 ($450,000) in Switzerland-based digital invoicing technology startup Billte on Monday. Billte, which was formed through the F10 Fintech Incubator and Accelerator scheme in early 2017, is working on a product aimed at the insurance industry.
Rainmatter, the early-stage investment vehicle for digital brokerage Zerodha, has supplied Rs 20m ($280,000) in funding for India-based online educational material platform developer LearnApp, Entrackr has reported. The funding will be used to enhance the startup’s technology and grow its video content.
