GV, a corporate venturing arm of internet and technology group Alphabet, paid an undisclosed amount for the stake in US-based female-only members club The Wing held by workspace operator WeWork on Wednesday. News of its planned divestiture first surfaced in November 2019. WeWork reportedly owned a 23% stake in the company valued at about $92m, having led the company’s $32m series B round in 2017. Its existing investors include short-term accommodation marketplace Airbnb.
Mobile network operator NTT Docomo has led a $10m funding round for AISense, the US-based operator of voice-conversation analysis platform Otter.ai, through subsidiary NTT Docomo Ventures, VentureBeat reported yesterday. The round included Fusion Fund, GGV, Draper Dragon Fund, Duke University Innovation Fund, Harris Barton Asset Management and Slow Ventures, and it took AISense’s total funding to $23m. Horizons Ventures, Draper Associates, Draper Dragon, Bridgewater Associates and angel investor David Cheriton backed its $10m series A round in 2017.
Singapore-based senior care provider Homage has raised an amount sources told TechCrunch was $10m, in a series B round led by EV Growth, the joint venture between conglomerate Sinar Mas, internet company Yahoo Japan and venture capital firm East Ventures. The round included Alternate Ventures, KDV Capital and HealthXCapital, the latter of which co-led a $4.15m series A for Homage in July 2018 with Golden Gate Ventures that included SeedPlus and angel investors Juha Paananen, Lim Dershing and Huang Shao Ning, taking its total funding to $5.35m.
UK-based online mortgage broker Trussle received £7.5m ($9.8m) on Monday from financial services firm Rabobank’s Rabo Frontier Ventures vehicle, investment bank Goldman Sachs’ Growth fund and Propel Venture Partners, the VC firm funded by bank BBVA. It has now raised $26.6m altogether having closed its series B round in mid-2018. Its earlier investors include online real estate portal Zoopla, Orange Growth Capital, LocalGlobe, Finch Capital and Seedcamp.
Neocova, the US-based developer of a banking technology platform tailored to community banks and credit unions, raised approximately $9.6m in series A funding on Wednesday from investors including financial services firms Bank of St. Elizabeth, Coastal Community Bank, First Financial, Kearny Bank, Provident Bancorp and Sunwest Bank. The capital will support additions to the company’s product and technology teams.
Rabobank’s Rabo Food & Agri Innovation Fund co-led a €6.5m ($7.1m) series A round for RootWave, the UK-based creator of an electrical weedkilling product, with VC firm V-Bio Ventures on Monday. Impact investment firm Pymwymic and existing backers including accelerator Yield Lab also contributed to the round. The company had raised $1m from Yield Lab and unnamed angel investors in addition to a $1.5m grant from the European Union’s Horizons 2020 scheme, as of August 2018.
Dating platform operator Match Group disclosed yesterday that it has invested an undisclosed amount in US-based personal safety app developer Noonlight in connection with a deal that will make its technology available on Match apps such as Tinder. Noonlight raised $6.6m from two investors last month according to a securities filing, and had previously received a total of $1m in debt financing and $4.4m in equity funding from backers including Cultivation Capital, New Enterprise Associates, Maveron and Aspect Ventures.
Japan-based social studying platform developer StudyPlus secured ¥700m ($6.4m) in series C funding on Monday, from investors including advertising platform developer United, educational publishers Shinko Shuppansha Keirinkan and Obunsha, media company Hakuhodo DY Holdings’ Hakuhodo DY Future Design Fund and correspondence education provider Zoshinkai. The corporates were joined by Mizuho Bank and Yokohama Bank subsidiaries Mizuho Capital and Yokohoma Ventures as well as Advisors’ Regional Economy Vitalization Corporation of Japan and Senshu Ikeda Capital. StudyPlus has now raised about $15.4m in total.
Government-owned pharmacy chain Apoteket has paid SEK60m ($6.3m) for a 20% stake in Sweden-based digital healthcare platform Doktor24, Nordic9 has reported. Doktor24 was launched in 2016 by Patricia Industries, a holding group subsidiary of family-owned investment management firm Investor AB, and will integrate Apoteket’s pharmacies into its health services network.
Banco BV, the financial services firm formerly known as Banco Votorantim, has led a R$25m ($6m) round for Olivia, the Brazil-based developer of an intelligent banking assistant, Startupi has reported. The round included BR Startups, a VC fund managed by MSW Capital and funded by corporate investors including Banco BV, and it was disclosed as Olivia publicly launched its app.
Payment services firm Mastercard invested an undisclosed amount in India-based point-of-sale technology provider Pine Labs today through a strategic partnership agreement. Pine Labs secured a total of $20m from VC firm Sequoia Capital, which acquired a majority stake back in 2009, before adding $82m in an early 2018 round led by investment firm Actis and backed by Altimeter Capital, $125m from digital payment processor PayPal and Temasek two months later, and $103m from its holding company in July 2019 to support its acquisition of Qwikcilver.
Canada-based supplier data provider Tealbook completed a $5m seed-plus round on Wednesday featuring enterprise software producer Workday’s strategic investment arm, Workday Ventures. The round was led by investment firm Refinery Ventures and included Grand Ventures, Stand Up Ventures and BDC Capital’s Women in Technology Venture Fund. It has now raised a total of approximately $7.7m according to Betakit, its earlier funding coming from backers including Stand Up Ventures, which invested in 2017.
Israel-based predictive cybersecurity technology developer Vicarius also raised $5m on Wednesday, the seed funding coming from VC firm Jerusalem Venture Partners, which led the round, energy utility Innogy’s Innovation Hub and industrial vehicle provider Goldbell Group. The company’s earlier investors include private investment vehicle Kesha Ventures and the capital will be used for product development and the expansion of offices in Israel and on the East Coast of the US.
RazorSecure, a UK-based provider of cybersecurity software for public transport, secured £2.6m ($3.4m) on Tuesday from investors including internet-of-things technology producer Reply’s Breed Reply unit and Mainport Innovation Fund II, a specialist fund with several corporate backers. The round also featured Wentworth and it boosted RazorSecure’s overall funding to about $5.2m, Breed Reply having first invested in the company in 2016.
Airborne, a Netherlands-based developer of automation technology for composite part manufacturing, received an undisclosed amount from steel producer and mining company Severstal, chemicals provider Sabic and VC fund Pangaea Ventures on Tuesday. It plans to work with Severstal on examining the viability of using steel in its composites while the corporate will offer the resulting parts to its customers for testing.
Housmart, a Japan-based developer of software for use by real estate brokerages, raised ¥300m ($2.7m) on Wednesday from investors including Japan Post Capital, postal service Japan Post’s corporate venturing subsidiary. The corporate participated together with VC firm Accord Ventures, which was identified as an existing investor.
Original Life, the Japan-based operator of wedding news and services platform Wedding News, secured ¥280m ($2.5m) on Monday in a series A round featuring digital advertising firm Septeni Holdings and Nissay Capital, the corporate venturing subsidiary of insurance firm Nippon Life, as well as angel investor Nobuhiro Ariyasu. The round boosted Original Life’s overall funding to about $4.3m, $1.1m of which came from automotive electronics software producer Vector, online advertising network Fan Communications and angel investor Kotaro Chiba in January 2018.
Investment processing technology producer SEI invested an undisclosed amount in US-based financial intelligence platform developer ForwardLane yesterday through corporate VC unit SEI Ventures, alongside VC fund SixThirty Global Fintech Fund. Regulatory filings show ForwardLane raised $2.1m in financing from seven investors last week, the company having secured $4.8m from the same two investors in May 2018.
Financial services firm Barclays contributed to a series A round for Poland-based text automation software developer Applica that was led by growth equity firm Cogito Capital Partners on Tuesday. Applica was among the participants in the September 2018 cohort of New York Barclays Accelerator, which Barclays runs in partnership with Techstars, and will put the series A proceeds towards international expansion.
Border, the Japan-based creator of a cloud software platform that provides support for business trips, raised ¥150m ($1.4m) on Wednesday from Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital, the VC arm of insurance firm Mitsui Sumitomo, and Pksha Sparx Algorithm Fund, a joint venture between data analysis technology provider Pksha and asset manager Sparx Group’s AI and Technologies Investment unit. The capital will support marketing, product development and the expansion of the company’s services.
Visus Industry IT, a spinoff from Germany-based medical imaging software provider Visus Health IT that focuses on software for use in materials testing, has received a seven-figure euro amount (€1m = $1.1m) from investors including publisher Grönemeyer Media, Deutsche Startups has reported. The round also featured financial services firm NRW.Bank, VC fund High-Tech Gründerfonds and Gründerfonds Ruhr, a €30m fund backed by several corporates situated in Germany’s Ruhr area, including NRW.Bank.
Croom, the Japan-based operator of student workspace and community services provider Croom College, secured an undisclosed amount of funding today from internet company CyberAgent’s corporate venturing subsidiary, CyberAgent Capital, VC firm East Ventures and unnamed angel investors. It has earmarked the capital for user acquisition and the expansion of its services.
Bualuang Ventures, financial services firm Bangkok Bank’s corporate venturing vehicle, has supplied a ‘seven-figure’ amount of series A funding for Singapore-based customer service chatbot developer Pand.ai, DealStreetAsia reported on Tuesday, citing an official announcement. Pand.ai had raised $1m in November 2019 from an unnamed Hong Kong-based angel investor and the latest cash will fuel technology development.
Latin music television network Latido Music invested an undisclosed amount in US-based podcast distribution platform ReVolver Podcasts yesterday. The companies are exploring possible avenues for partnerships, such as podcasts starring Latin Music influencers or video versions of existing ReVolver podcasts.
Japan-based augmented reality game developer Graffity raised ¥100m ($910,000) in convertible note financing from Deepcore, the artificial intelligence-focused incubator launched by telecommunications and internet group SoftBank, and VC firm East Ventures on Tuesday. Graffity said it has now secured a total of about $1.9m, including $890,000 from an unnamed VC firm and angel investors including Hironao Kunimitsu, Yusuke Sato, Kensuke Furukawa, Ayataro Nakagawa, Masao Ito and Tomohiro Otomi in December 2018.
TDK Ventures, the investment arm of electronics producer TDK, provided an undisclosed amount of funding for US-based laser-light technology developer SLD Laser on Wednesday. The deal represents the third investment from TDK’s $50m corporate venturing fund since it was launched in July 2019. SLD had not disclosed any previous funding.
Fabric and craft supplier Joann has invested an undisclosed amount in WeaveUp, a US-based developer of textile printing software, and intends to partner the company as it explores digital-textile printing. Matt Susz, chief financial officer of Joann, is joining WeaveUp‘s board of directors in connection with the deal.
Jatri, the Bangladesh-based developer of a bus tracking and ticketing app, has raised an undisclosed amount of seed capital from consulting firm Tahseen Consulting, Superangel, Falcon Network and unnamed angel investors, e27 reported yesterday. Adventure Capital had supplied pre-seed funding for the startup, which is already in talks with prospective investors in a series A round.
