Sigstr, the US-based developer of a personalised employee email system, raised $5m on Tuesday in a series A round led by venture capital fund Hyde Park Venture Partners that included enterprise software provider HubSpot, Battery Ventures, Grand Ventures and High Alpha Capital. It had previously raised $2m in equity financing and $850,000 in debt, according to securities filings, with $1.5m coming in a December 2015 round featuring High Alpha Capital and assorted angel investors.
Ericsson Ventures, the corporate VC arm of telecommunications technology producer Ericsson, invested $5m in US-based 3D and virtual reality technology provider Matterport on Tuesday. Matterport had previously raised more than $56m from investors including Qualcomm Ventures and AMD Ventures, the corporate venturing subsidiaries of chipmakers Qualcomm and AMD, as well as real estate firm CBRE Group, media group News Corp, GIC, DCM Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, Lux Capital, Felicis Ventures, Greylock Partners, Navitas Capital, Luminari Capital, Sound Ventures and Rothenberg Ventures.
Clearink, a US-based reflective display technology developer backed by thin-film product maker Jinfu New Material, completed a $5m series C round led by investment fund Vestech International on Wednesday. The round took Clearink’s total funding to $15m, $7m of which was supplied by Jinfu, LangSheng Capital, NEY, Altus Ventures and CrossPacific Capital in April 2016.
Canada-based interactive training software developer Serious Labs has secured $5m in series A funding from equipment rental service United Rentals and venture capital firm Brick and Mortar Ventures. Founded in 2005, Serious Labs serves customers including United in industries such as construction, mining, oil and gas and plant maintenance, and announced the funding alongside $3.5m in product development contracts.
Conglomerate Fosun Group has invested an undisclosed amount in Shanghai Distributed Technologies, the China-based creator of Blockchain-like distributed ledger project Onchain, Reuters reported on Wednesday. Fosun provided an eight-figure renminbi amount (RMB10m = $1.5m) for the company through the deal, a Fosun official told Coindesk.
Canada-based cybersecurity software provider eSentire, which counts networking equipment maker Cisco as an investor, received an undisclosed amount of funding from private equity firm Warburg Pincus on Monday. The investment followed almost $40m of funding from Cisco’s corporate venturing arm, Cisco Investments, as well as Edison Partners, Georgian Partners, Northleaf Ventures Catalyst Fund, VentureLink and Information Venture Partners.
Samsung Venture Investment, a corporate venturing vehicle for consumer electronics provider Samsung, has supplied ₩5bn ($4.4m) of funding for South Korea-based social network CyWorld, Pulse News reported on Tuesday. Originally launched in 1999, Cyworld’s popularity was usurped by international social networks, but it was acquired by telecommunications company SK Telecom in 2003 and then by video communication platform Aire in 2016.
Merck Ventures, the corporate venturing subsidiary of pharmaceutical firm Merck Group, added an undisclosed sum on Wednesday to the series A round being raised by UK-based immuno-oncology research startup Macrophage Pharma. Macrophage had raised approximately $11m for the round from Novo Seeds, a subsidiary of pharmaceutical company Novo, as well as CRT Pioneer Fund and Aglaia Biomedical Ventures, as of January this year.
Payment services provider Anypay and VC firm Kalaari Capital have provided an undisclosed amount of pre-series B funding for Instamojo, an India-based developer of online payment technology for e-commerce companies. The funding came three years after Kalaari Capital, Blume Ventures and 500 Startups invested $2.6m in Instamojo, 500 Startups having previously supplied an undisclosed amount of capital for the company in 2012.
Hospital network UCHealth invested an undisclosed amount in US-based magnetic resonance imaging services provider Smart Choice MRI on Wednesday, taking the company’s total funding to $22m. F Street Capital invested $2.5m to lead a $6.5m round for Smart Choice in November 2015, before healthcare system ThedaCare added $3m in funding through a strategic investment three months later.
ShoCard, the US-based creator of a blockchain-equipped identity management platform, raised $4m on Tuesday in a round that included Recruit Strategic Partners, the corporate venturing subsidiary of human resources provider Recruit. The round was co-led by Morado Ventures and AME Cloud Ventures and backed by Storm Ventures, Danhua Capital, Correlation Ventures and angel investor Robert Tinker, and came after $1.5m from Morado, AME, Enspire Capital and Digital Currency Group in July 2015.
Transportation and automotive technology provider Delphi Automotive has invested an undisclosed amount in Israel-based lidar sensor technology startup Innoviz Technologies as part of a commercial partnership agreement. Innoviz had raised $9m from Vertex Venture Capital, Magma Venture Partners, Amiti Ventures, Delek Investments and private investor Zohar Zisapel when it emerged from stealth in August 2016.
CMFG Ventures, the VC investment vehicle for insurance provider CUNA Mutual Group, provided an undisclosed amount of funding yesterday for Mirador, the US-based operator of an online lending platform for small businesses. Mirador raised $9m across two rounds in 2014 and 2015 from IT services provider Vesta Corporation, Collaborative Fund, Crosslink Capital, Wicklow Capital, Core Innovation Capital, Nyca Partners, Jump Capital and assorted angel investors.
Diversified conglomerate Itochu has invested $1m to lead a $2m round for Thailand-based business messaging app developer Eko Communications that included Gobi Ventures, the VC firm that led Eko’s $5.7m series A round in 2015, TechCrunch reported yesterday. VC firm 500 Startups and undisclosed angel investors had provided $1m of seed capital for Eko in 2014, and the latest funding was raised in advance of a planned series B round in 2018, Eko said.
Celularity, a US-based developer of cell and tissue regeneration therapies, closed a series A round of undisclosed size on Monday that included biopharmaceutical companies Sorrento Therapeutics and United Therapeutics Corporation as well as health intelligence provider Human Longevity. Undisclosed entrepreneurial investors also participated in the round, which will support work on drug candidates for cancer and chronic and degenerative disease.
Japan-based unmanned underwater vehicle developer Ambient Intelligence Technology secured ¥190m ($1.7m) in funding on Monday from investors including Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital, Freebit Investment and SMBC Venture Capital, respective subsidiaries of insurer Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance, internet company Freebit and financial services firm Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, The Bridge reported. Beyond Next Ventures led the round.
Awakens, a US-based genome data services startup that is part of genomics technology provider Illumina’s accelerator, raised an undisclosed amount on Tuesday in a seed round led by 500 Startups Japan that included medical information provider M3, Japanese Organization for Medical Device Development and angel investors Tomihisa Kamada, Tsunegoro Nishino and Hiroaki Kitano, The Bridge reported. The funding will be used to further develop the startup’s Genome Link platform.
E-mobility consulting firm P3 Group has acquired a stake of undisclosed size in Custom Cells, a Germany-based electrode foil and rechargeable lithium battery producer that was formed by chemical producer Altana. P3 bought shares from existing shareholders including Altana, Innovationstarter Fonds Hamburg and High-Tech Gründerfonds, after the latter two had invested an undisclosed sum in 2013, but it did not reveal financial details or whether the exits were partial or complete.
India-based online grocery delivery service Milkbasket has received an undisclosed amount of funding from Lenovo Capital and Incubator Group, the corporate VC vehicle for electronics producer Lenovo, and VC firm Blume Ventures, Businessworld reported on Tuesday. EVC Ventures, the VC firm that led Milkbasket’s $500,000 pre-series A round in April 2016, exited in the round having made a 200% return on its investment, according to Techstory.
Ignite, an impact investment fund operated by energy utility Centrica, has invested £200,000 ($260,000) in Grid Edge, a UK-based developer of artificial intelligence-equipped energy management software, Business Quarter reported on Monday. Grid Edge will put the capital toward product development and the commercialisation of its software, which it claims can reduce energy use in a building by up to 25%.
llumina and VC and growth equity firm Telegraph Hill Partners launched a US-based forensic systems startup called Verogen yesterday. Verogen will supply Illumina’s forensic sequencing technology for human and non-human forensics activities, but has not disclosed the amount of funding it has received as part of the deal.