E-commerce group Alibaba paid an undisclosed amount for a 10% stake in Xiaopeng, the China-based electric car developer also known as Xpeng, automotive news and sales platform Gasgoo reported on Wednesday. The corporate invested alongside GGV Capital, Matrix Partners China, Morningside Venture Capital, IDG Capital, Shunwei Capital, Everbright Zhongying Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Kinzon Capital, according to China Money Network. Xiaopeng had previously raised $324m in a June 2017 round led by on-demand ride platform UCar.
Collective Retreats, a US-based specialist holiday experience provider backed by online media platform Oath, has received $10m in funding from investors including Simon Turner, formerly the president of global development for hospitality group Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Travel Weekly reported on Wednesday. Oath subsidiary BBG Ventures was among the investors that provided the $2.5m the company had raised when it emerged from stealth in March this year.
ForePaaS, the France-based developer of platform-as-a-service software for data analytics, has secured $10m in a series A round featuring Hi Inov, the venture capital arm of conglomerate Dentressangle Initiatives that also manages rail operator SNCF’s Digital Ventures fund. VC firm Elaia Partners and private equity firm Calao Finance also participated in the round, the proceeds of which will be used to double the size of the company’s team to 80 by the end of 2018, to invest in R&D, and to expand in Europe and the US.
NexWafe, a Germany-based creator of silicon-wafer fabrication technology for the solar photovoltaic panel industry, closed a €8m ($9.4m) financing round led by Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, the corporate venturing subsidiary of oil and gas supplier Saudi Aramco. The round included Green Gateway Fund 2 and Lynwood, the private equity firm that led the company’s $6.6m series A round in March 2016, before KIC InnoEnergy invested $2.1m in January 2017.
TearSolutions, a US-based developer of a treatment for dry eye syndrome, has secured $8.5m in a series B round co-led by pharmaceutical company Pharmstandard and investment firm Middleland Capital’s Virginia Tech Carilion (VTC) Innovation Fund that included Santen Ventures, a subsidiary of pharmaceutical firm Santen. The company had already raised $3m in a 2015 series A round featuring Santen, Medarva Innovations, Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) and Launch Capital.
Comcast Ventures, the corporate venturing vehicle for mass media company Comcast, led an $8m round on Tuesday for SevenRooms, the US-based creator of a reservation management system for hotels, restaurants and clubs. The round took SevenRooms’ overall funding to $16.4m, according to the company, its past investors including Box Group, the Handwerker and Merinoff families, and various angel investors. Comcast Ventures managing director Dinesh Moorjani will join SevenRooms’ board of directors in conjunction with round.
DocsApp, the India-based developer of a mobile medical consultation platform, received $7.2m on Tuesday from investors including IT technology and services provider Techmatrix and internet company DeNA, YourStory reported. Bessemer Venture Partners, Rebright Partners and angel investors Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayanan also took part in the round, the latter three having already invested $1.2m in the startup in April 2016.
Intel Capital, the corporate VC subsidiary of semiconductor producer Intel, led the first close of a $7m series A round for US-based communications network technology developer GenXComm on Tuesday. Intel was joined by Fam Capital Partners and UT Horizon Fund, the participants in its $1.5m seed round in June this year, as well as Azure Capital Partners, Bandgap Ventures, Capital Factory, Lip-Bu Tan and WS Investment.
India-based educational toy provider Flintobox has raised $7m in a series A round led by VC firm Lightbox that included mobile app developer Mauj Mobile, investment and consulting firm Asian E-Commerce Alliance, Globevestor and angel investor Ashwin Chadha, the Economic Times has reported. Early investor GSF Accelerator exited in the round, which followed a $300,000 seed round in 2014 featuring Globevestor, Asian Ecommerce Alliance and People Group, the operator of marriage arrangement platform Shaadi.
Lion Rock, the China-based creator of an online financial services, news and automated wealth management platform focused on asset allocation, received HK$50m ($6.4m) on Wednesday in a series A round featuring peer-to-peer lending service Yirendai. The round was led by VC fund Marathon Venture Partners and included mobile financial services provider 9F, according to China Money Network.
VC firm Square Peg Capital has invested A$8m ($6.1m) in AirWallex, the Australia-based creator of a cross-border financial transfer platform, Australian Financial Review reported yesterday. AirWallex had raised a total of $16m as of May this year when it closed a $13m series A round featuring internet company Tencent, payment services provider Mastercard and Sequoia Capital China, having previously raised funding from Gobi Partners, Huashan Capital One and angel investor Billy Tam.
Credit risk and information services provider TransUnion led a series B round of undisclosed size for US-based data onboarding software producer Throtle on Tuesday that included private investor Auren Hoffman. The deal comes six months after the company closed its series A round, in which it also raised an undisclosed sum, from Venture Investment Company, Abry, New Spring Capital and angel investors including Joe Zawadzki and Mark Zagorski.
US-based oncology drug developer OncoTartis closed a $6m financing round on Monday that included Pharmstandard and what the startup referred to as “a venture arm of the largest Russian pharmaceutical company”. Norma Investments, the investment vehicle for entrepreneur Roman Abramovich, also took part in the round, VC firm BioProcess Capital Ventures having provided the company’s earlier funding.
Insurance firm Sompo Holdings has led a $6m series B round for Taiwan-based diabetes tracking platform developer Health2Sync that included Alibaba and VC firm WI Harper. The round follows the company’s $3m series A round in August 2016, which was led by WI Harper and backed by Cherubic Ventures, iSeed Ventures and SparkLabs Global Ventures, and Alibaba was also described as an existing investor.
Financial services firm Credit Suisse’s Next Investors unit has invested $6m in Lux Fund Technology and Solutions, a US-based developer of business technology for the alternative asset industry. Lux will use the funding to enhance Transcend, its business intelligence-equipped front-to-back office automation software platform.
Bay Labs, a US-based startup developing a cardiovascular imaging system that uses artificial intelligence technology, closed a $5.5m series A round featuring Minneapolis Heart Institute Ventures, a strategic investment vehicle for care provider Minneapolis Heart Institute. The round was led by VC firm and existing backer Khosla Ventures and included Data Collective, Greenbox Venture Partners and angel investor Georges Harik, and followed a $1.6m round in 2015.
Alcide, the Israel-based developer of a network security platform for data centres, has emerged from stealth with $5.2m it had raised in a seed round co-led by Intel Capital and technology holding company Elron Electronic Industries. The startup has created a cloud platform that protects data workloads in container, virtual machine and bare metal data centres.
Biofourmis, the Singapore-based creator of a health analytics platform, has received $5m in series A funding from Aviva Ventures, the corporate venturing unit formed by insurance firm Aviva, and VC firm NSI Ventures, the Straits Times reported on Monday. Healthcare management technology provider SpesNet and consulting firm Eden Strategy had co-led a $1m round for Biofoiurmis in August 2016.
Publishing firm Egmont has invested an eight-figure krone amount (DKK10 = $1.60) in Sweden-based outdoor product retailer and portfolio company Outnorth to increase its stake to one-third. Egmont had previously provided SEK40m ($3.6m) in funding for the company at a valuation of SEK250m to SEK300m, Dagens Industri had reported in January 2017.
Senseye, a UK-based developer of predictive maintenance software, completed a £3.5m ($4.7m) series A round on Monday featuring Breed Reply, the early-stage fund owned by internet-of-things technology provider Reply. VC firm MMC Ventures led the round, which included IQ Capital and Momenta Partners, and which came after Senseye raised $1.6m from two undisclosed VC firms in October 2016.
Aeronyde, the US-based creator of an autonomous aerial drone operating system equipped with artificial intelligence and augmented reality technology, raised $4.7m on Tuesday in a seed round led by industrial electronics manufacturer Jastech. The funding will be used to further developer Aeronyde’s hardware and system software technology.
Conglomerate Mitsui invested approximately ¥500m ($4.4m) in Japan-based artificial intelligence and deep learning technology developer Preferred Networks on Monday. Preferred Networks had received $1.8m in funding from telecommunications firm NTT in 2014 before automotive manufacturer Toyota added $8.3m the following year and $94.8m in August 2017.
Homeis, the dual US and Israel-based developer of a social media platform for communities of migrants and foreign-born nationals, emerged from stealth on Tuesday with $4m of funding from investors including Samsung Next, a corporate venturing subsidiary of electronics producer Samsung, and over-the-top media company Chernin Group. Other Homeis investors include Spark Capital, Canaan Partners and angel investors including Tim Armstrong and Adam Singolda.
Power systems producer Delta supplied an undisclosed amount of funding for Canada-based gallium nitride (GaN) power semiconductor provider GaN Systems on Monday. GaN had raised $20m from Cycle Capital Management, BDC Capital, Tsing Capital and existing investors Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital and RockPort Capital in mid-2015 before securing an undisclosed sum from BMW i Ventures, the strategic investment arm of carmaker BMW, in July 2017.
Curisium, the US-based developer of a blockchain-equipped healthcare management platform, received $3.5m in seed financing from investors including Sanofi Ventures, pharmaceutical firm Sanofi’s corporate venturing arm, which will place senior director of investments Ruchita Sinha in a board observer position. Flare Capital Partners, New Enterprise Associates, Shuttle Fund and Green Bay Ventures also participated in the round, the former two getting board seats as part of the deal.
Quantemplate, the UK-based creator of a machine learning platform that helps insurers and reinsurers gain insights into their businesses, secured £2.5m ($3.3m) on Tuesday from investors including insurance groups Allianz and Aegon, the later through its TransAmerica Ventures unit. Columbia Lake Partners, Route 66 Ventures and Anthemis also contributed to the round, which follows an $8m round featuring Allianz, Transamerica Ventures, Route 66 Ventures and Anthemis in 2015 that took the company’s overall funding to $10m.
Genies, a US-based customised mobile avatar app developer backed by production company Management 360 and CAA Ventures, the corporate venturing subsidiary of talent agency CAA, has raised $3m from investors including Macro Ventures, TGZ Capital and a range of angel investors at a valuation of more than $100m. Formerly known as Blend Systems, the company’s existing investors include Foundation Capital, Lerer Ventures and Trinity Ventures.
Portag3, the VC arm of financial services provider Power Financial Corporation, co-led a £2.2m ($2.9m) seed round for UK-based mobile banking app developer Loot on Wednesday with Speedinvest. The round increased Loot’s overall funding to £6m, its earlier funding coming from Speedinvest and Global Founders Capital across rounds in June and November 2016.
CGTrader, the Lithuania-based operator of a 3D model marketplace, has received €2m ($2.4m) in a round that included Intel Capital, EU-Startups reported on Tuesday. VC fund Karma Ventures led the round, which also featured VC firm Practica Capital and which followed $240,000 from Practica in 2013 and an undisclosed amount from Intel Capital and Practica the following year.
SBI Investment, a VC subsidiary of financial services firm SBI, has led a $2.3m series A round for Singapore-based employment perks provider Venteny, Tech in Asia reported on Tuesday. The round included SV-Fintech as well as an unnamed Singapore-based firm and angel investors Mamoru Taniya and Makoto Takano, and came after KK Fund and Ocean Capital provided an undisclosed amount of seed funding for the company in February this year.
US-based personalised male grooming product supplier Hawthorne has secured $2.2m in funding from investors including Comcast Ventures, Forbes reported on Wednesday. The round included VC firm Founder Collective and angel investors Shana Fisher, Shan-Lyn Ma, Kyle Vucko and Sarah Willersdorf.
Accuron MedTech, a medical device subsidiary of engineering and technology firm Accuron, has led a S$2.6m ($1.9m) pre-series A round for Advent Access, the Singapore-based developer of a device-guided needling system for dialysis, Straits Times reported on Tuesday. It will put the funding into developing and commercialising its technology, and Accuron made the investment through Med Tech Alliance, a venture it formed with private investor Lu Yoh-Chie.
Kami, the UK-based developer of a conversational artificial intelligence platform focused on the banking, finance, securities and insurance sectors, raised $1.7m on Tuesday in an oversubscribed seed round backed by Arm Innovation Ecosystem Accelerator, a subsidiary of telecoms and internet group SoftBank. The round also featured Tin Fu Fund and X Technology Fund.
Gree Ventures, the corporate VC subsidiary of digital media company Gree, has led a pre-series A round of undisclosed size for BuildSupply, an India-based startup working on enterprise resource planning software for the real estate and construction industry, Businessworld reported on Wednesday. Venture Highway and angel investors Sonny Kalsi, Kalpesh Mehta, Rohit Srivastava and Sameer Brij Verma also took part in the round.
Motorcycle producer TVS Motor has invested Rs 50m ($780,000) in India-based electric two-wheeler vehicle developer Ultraviolette Automotive, LiveMint has reported, citing a stock exchange filing. Ultraviolette has tested three prototype vehicles but is yet to release its first model.
Sonata Europe, a subsidiary of IT services provider Sonata Software, has agreed to provide $96,000 in funding for Denmark-based IT consulting firm Izara, VCCircle has reported, citing a stock exchange disclosure. Izara offers IT technology and services to customers in the US, Europe, West Asia and Asia Pacific regions.
– Photo courtesy of Xiaopeng