Office equipment producer Toshiba Tec has invested $5m in New Zealand-based intelligent shopping trolley developer Imagr to lead a $9.5m pre-series A round that included investment firm Sage Capital and angel investor Harald McPike. The latter two were identified as existing backers, Imagr having received an undisclosed amount from Sage Technologies, billed as McPike’s investment vehicle, in 2017.
YG Investment, the corporate venturing arm of musical entertainment provider YG Entertainment, joined investment firm Partners Investment on Tuesday to add $2.5m to a series A round for US-based online virtual reality content creation and distribution platform AmazeVR that now totals $9.5m. It raised the first $7m in May 2019, from financial services firm Mirae Asset’s Venture Investment unit and the Naver New Growth Fund it formed with internet company Naver, as well as LG Technology Ventures and Smilegate Investment, on behalf of electronics provider LG and video game publisher Smilegate, in addition to Timewise Investment.
Networking technology producer Cisco led an $8.6m round on Tuesday for SeaLights, the US-based creator of a quality intelligence platform for IT applications, investing together with IT services firm Wipro’s corporate VC unit, Wipro Ventures. The company had previously received $11m from TLV Partners, Blumberg Capital and angel investor Oren Zeev in 2016. It will put the latest funding into sales, engineering and platform development.
AdmitHub, the US-based creator of a conversational artificial intelligence platform for use in education, raised an undisclosed amount from enterprise software producer Salesforce’s corporate VC unit, Salesforce Ventures, and internet technology provider Google’s Assistant Investments initiative on Monday to increase its funding to $7.5m in the past year. University Ventures led a round of undisclosed size for the company in May 2018 featuring Reach Capital, Relay Ventures and Rethink Education that in turn followed $3m of earlier funding including $2.2m from Relay Ventures, Reach Capital and University Ventures in 2017.
Insurance firm Axa has joined venture builder Kamet Ventures to provide €6m ($6.6m) for Medloop, a Germany-based startup that has developed a mobile app to promote preventative healthcare, EU-Startups reported on Wednesday. Medloop, which recently expanded into the UK, will invest the capital in expanding its product range.
Lynq Technologies, the US-based developer of a communication software platform for low-bandwidth data, secured $6m on Tuesday in a seed round featuring Sony Innovation Fund, a corporate venturing vehicle for consumer electronics producer Sony. The round also included FF Venture Capital, Chetrit Ventures and Plus Eight Equity Partners, and it came after a $1.7m crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. The capital will be used to increase headcount.
Util-Assist, an energy utility services subsidiary of energy group Alectra, supplied $5m in funding for Grid4C, a US-based developer of artificial intelligence technology for the energy industry, on Tuesday. VC fund Israel Cleantech Ventures invested $1.5m in Grid4C in 2014 before leading a $5m round in late 2018 that also featured utilities including Engie in addition to iAngels and AxessVentures. The company said this week it has now raised $12.5m altogether.
Foresight Williams Technology EIS Fund, a joint venture between technology and engineering services provider Williams Advanced Engineering and private equity firm Foresight Group, led a $4.7m funding round for UK-based virtual and augmented reality software developer Masters of Pie on Monday with a $2m investment. The round included industrial technology provider Robert Bosch’s investment arm, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, as well as Downing Ventures, which led the company’s $2.1m seed round in June 2018.
Meat and packaged food supplier Golden West Food Group led a $4m funding round for Cooks Venture, a US-based meat provider that practises regenerative agriculture, on Tuesday. The company secured $12m in a September 2019 financing led by alternative asset management firm Amerra Capital Management and the latest funding will support the expansion of the company’s food distribution resources as it prepares to add beef, pork and vegetables to its product offering.
Patchwork Health, the UK-based operator of a healthcare-focused temping service, secured £3m ($3.9m) from investors including medical publisher BMJ on Wednesday. The round was led by an investment from VC firm Praetura Ventures pegged at $2.5m by Business Leader, and included undisclosed existing angel investors. The capital will support technology development and the expansion of the company’s partnerships.
Financial services firm Standard Chartered invested an undisclosed amount in Contour, the Singapore-based creator of a blockchain-equipped platform that facilitates the development and issuing of letters of credit, on Tuesday. Standard Chartered was named as one of seven banks backing Contour, which was formerly known as Voltron, when it launched earlier in the week.
UK-based data generation platform developer Hazy raised $3.5m on Monday in a seed-plus round led by VC firm Notion Capital and backed by M12, the corporate venturing subsidiary of software provider Microsoft, as well as building society Nationwide, brand management firm Pentland and investment manager Albion Capital. It has now raised $6.8m altogether, including $2.8m in seed capital from M12, Nationwide, Pentland, Notion Capital, UCL Technology Fund, Amadeus Capital Partners and AI Seed as of August 2018.
Customer relationship management software producer Salesforce provided an undisclosed amount for Japan-based internet-of-things orchestration software developer Uhuru on Wednesday. Uhuru was reportedly targeting an initial public offering as of September 2019, when it had raised a total of at least $8.9m from Salesforce unit Salesforce Ventures, internet and telecommunications group SoftBank, IT equipment provider NEC Corporation, conglomerate Mitsui, spark plug manufacturer NGK and marketing agency Dentsu.
India-based snack brand Samosa Singh has received $2.7m in series A funding from investors including mobile game developer Akatsuki’s AET Fund, Press Trust of India has reported. Female-focused VC fund She Capital led the round, which included Fireside Ventures, Equanimity Investments and AL Trust. The deal followed a seed round of undisclosed size backed by Fireside Ventures.
Payment services firm Mastercard supplied an undisclosed amount of funding yesterday for Trust Stamp, a US-based developer of artificial intelligence-equipped identity authentication technology, following the company’s participation in the 2018 batch of its Mastercard Start Path accelerator. Trust Stamp raised an undisclosed sum from blockchain technology provider Emergent Technology Holdings in September 2018 and its backers include Second Century Ventures, SixThirty Cyber and 10Clouds.
Engineering and commercial technology manufacturer Honeywell invested an undisclosed amount in US-based customer relationship management (CRM) platform developer Tact.ai on Tuesday through subsidiary Honeywell Ventures. Tact.ai had raised a total of more than $57m, as of a $27m series C round featuring M12, Salesforce Ventures, Alexa Fund and Comcast Ventures – representing Microsoft, Salesforce, e-commerce firm Amazon and mass media group Comcast respectively.
Saudi Arabia-based last-mile delivery service Saee has secured $2.4m in a series A round featuring travel and business services provider Tasheel Holding Group and utility services firm Abunayyan Holding, which invested through its ABN Ventures vehicle, Wamda has reported. The round included Business Incubators and Accelerators Company and will support the expansion of Saee’s offering.
Printing services provider Dai Nippon Printing has supplied an undisclosed amount of series B funding for Mama Square, the Japan-based operator of a child-friendly workspace for mothers, on Monday. It had already raised more than $8.3m from investors including electronics manufacturer Kaga Electronics, prefabricated building provider Daiwa Lease, consulting firm S&C Group, human resources firm Will Group’s Incubate Fund, property manager Xymax, parking management firm Phil Company, staff provider Tsunagu Solutions, business services firm Relia, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, Niigata Venture Capital and Sansei Capital Investment.
US-based comic book publisher Skybound Entertainment has raised an undisclosed amount in a funding round led by mobile game publisher Com2uS in connection with a strategic partnership deal, the companies announced on Wednesday. VC firms C Ventures and Third Wave Digital co-led the round and, although Skybound has not publicly revealed details of earlier funding, it was among the portfolio companies disclosed by C Ventures when it launched in 2017.
Yamaha Motor Ventures & Laboratory Silicon Valley, the corporate venturing vehicle for motorised vehicle producer Yamaha Motor, led a A$3m ($2m) seed round on Monday for Loop+, the Australia-based developer of a wheelchair-movement tracking system. VC fund Giant Leap Fund and investment syndicate Eleanor Venture also took part, alongside other, unnamed backers located in Australia.
Consumer electronics provider Samsung invested an undisclosed amount in Denmark-based air purification technology developer Infuser yesterday through corporate venturing subsidiary Samsung Ventures. The funding will help the company, which was spun out of University of Copenhagen, to expand internationally.
Childcare and nursing services firm Global Bridge Holdings joined undisclosed businesses and angel investors to provide an undisclosed amount for Japan-based childcare technology developer First Ascent on Monday. The cash will support development of products including a device that analyses a baby’s crying.
Infosys Innovation Fund, the corporate venturing arm of IT services firm Infosys, has divested its stake in Denmark-based textual analysis software provider Unsilo for approximately $800,000, VCCircle reported yesterday, citing a regulatory filing. The unit invested $2.1m in Unsilo in 2016 and exited through an acquisition by scientific communications technology producer Cactus Communications announced on Tuesday. Unsilo had raised a total of $3.1m from investors also including Oei and Scale Capital.
Heallo India, the India-based owner of digital skincare and hair retention platform CureSkin, has raised $500,000 in a funding round led by venture co-creation platform SenseAI Ventures, VCCircle reported on Wednesday, citing SenseAI’s managing partner, Vinish Kathuria. The round included unnamed angel investors and it comes after the company’s participation in Google’s Launchpad accelerator in 2019, and $1m in seed funding from Khosla Ventures, Gagarin Capital, Y Combinator and Heartbeat Labs the same year, according to VCCircle.
India-based conversational artificial intelligence platform developer Senseforth.ai announced on Tuesday it has been chosen for the third batch of shipping services firm AP Moller – Maersk’s OceanPro accelerator. The company had previously received $450,000 in equity financing in 2017 and had participated in cloud services provider NetApp’s Excellerator and law firm Ashurst’s FinTech Legal Labs accelerator.
Indonesia-based smart motorcycle apparel and accessory producer Zulu received an undisclosed amount of funding from ride hailing service Gojek in August 2018, co-founder and chief technology officer Yusuf Syaid told DealStreetAsia on Wednesday. The corporate is currently the only investor in Zulu, which is in the process of raising series A funding. News of Gojek’s investment initially appeared in Daily Social without details of the date.
