Combustion and electric vehicle technology producer BorgWarner paid an undisclosed amount for a 20% stake in US-based battery pack developer Romeo Power Technology on Tuesday. The investment, made alongside a joint venture agreement between the companies, comes after Romeo Power raised $30m in seed capital from its executives, undisclosed family offices and unnamed other investors.
Velano Vascular, the US-based creator of a needle-free blood collection system, received $10m in funding from investors including care provider Intermountain Healthcare on Wednesday. Kapor Capital and private investors Edward Ludwig, Marc Benioff and Robert Parkinson also participated in the round, which took Velano’s total funding to $35.5m. Its earlier backers include healthcare providers Sutter Health, Griffin Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, as well as First Round, Safeguard Scientifics and White Owl Capital.
Singapore-based meal delivery service Grain secured $10m today in a series B equity and venture debt round led by Singha Ventures, the corporate venturing vehicle for beverage producer Singha. The round included food services provider FoodXervices, Majuven, Openspace Ventures (then known as NSI Ventures) and Cento Ventures (previously known as DMP) – all existing backers – as well as Genesis Alternative Ventures, Sassoon Investment Corporation, K2 Global and Raging Bull. Its earlier investors include restaurant operator First Gourmet and 500 Startups.
Qedit, an Israel-based developer of blockchain-powered data privacy technology, has raised $10m in series A funding from investors including e-commerce firm Alibaba’s financial services affiliate, Ant Financial, and RGAx, the corporate venturing arm of advertising agency R/GA. The round was led by investment firm MizMaa Ventures and backed by Meron Capital, Collider Ventures, Jovono and Target Global.
HG Ventures, the venture capital arm of industrial services provider The Heritage Group, led a series A round for US-based synthetic molecule developer Biosynthetic Technologies on Tuesday that the Indianapolis Business Journal reported was $9.5m in size. The company secured a $100m loan guarantee from the US Department of Agriculture in 2016, in addition to $35.7m in equity and $16.5m in debt financing between 2013 and February 2017 according to securities filings, from investors including chemicals producer Evonik’s Venture Capital unit.
Marubeni America Corporation, a subsidiary of Japan-headquartered trading group Marubeni, invested an undisclosed sum in GridMarket, the US-based developer of an analytics software platform for distributed energy projects, last month, it announced yesterday. The funding was provided in connection with a strategic partnership that will involve GridMarket servicing Marubeni affiliates, customers and partners.
SamanTree Medical, a Switzerland-based developer of technology that can track the status of a cancerous lump during surgery, has completed a CHF9.5m ($9.3m) series A round featuring Sioux Tech Fund, a corporate venturing subsidiary of technology services provider Sioux Technologies, Agefi reported on Monday. The round was led by venture capital firm Panakès Partners and included BOM Brabant Ventures and Btov Partners.
Grocery delivery service Ocado paid £4.75m yesterday to lead a £7m ($9.1m) funding round for Karakuri, a UK-based developer of robotics technology for restaurants and caterers. The investment gave Ocado an 18% stake in the company as well as a board seat, and the round included VC firm Hoxton Ventures, VC fund Firstminute Capital and Taylor Brothers. Karakuri will begin providing its automation technology for Ocado from the second half of this year.
Mobile network operator X Mobile has supplied ¥965m ($8.8m) of series C funding for Vector, a Japan-based provider of microsatellite launch services, VentureTimes reported today. Vector had previously received $101m in funding, $70m of which came in an October 2018 series B round, and its earlier investors include diversified conglomerate Kanematsu, Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners, Kodem Growth Partners, Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Shasta Ventures, Desert Angels, Arizona Technology Investors, Space Angels Network and Kurrent Investment.
Higher education discovery platform developer CollegeDekho has raised $8m in funding from its parent company, software development services provider GirnarSoft, and Man Capital, the private equity investment vehicle for conglomerate Mansour Group, the Economic Times reported on Wednesday. GirnarSoft provided $1m for CollegeDekho in 2015, before Man Capital invested $2m the following year. Both combined to add $2m in funding in February 2018.
Netherlands-based medical training technology provider LeQuest has received €7m ($7.8m) in funding from investors including Philips Health Technology Ventures, technology and medical equipment producer Philips. The round was co-led by hospital financing partner MedFinance and economic development agency InnovationQuarter, and also featured NextGen Ventures and Noaber Ventures, an investment vehicle for Noaber Foundation. The latter two had joined Philips to invest $4.7m in LeQuest in October 2017.
Industrial and electrical equipment maker Mitsubishi Electric Corporation revealed on Tuesday it has invested an undisclosed amount in motion-planning technology developer Realtime Robotics. The company had raised $7.6m of a $17.1m round as of April 2019 according to a regulatory filing, having received $2m in seed funding from Toyota AI Ventures, a subsidiary of carmaker Toyota, Sparx Group and Scrum Ventures in late 2017, and an undisclosed sum from manufacturing services firm Johnan in December 2018.
Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures and Equinor Technology Ventures, corporate VC subsidiaries of petroleum supplier Saudi Aramco and energy producer Equinor, co-led a $6m series A round for US-based, industrial sector-focused smart contract technology provider Data Gumbo Corp on Tuesday. The round took Data Gumbo’s total funding to $9.3m, $1.35m of which came from Carnrite Ventures, Plug and Play and unnamed angel investors in August 2018.
Understory, an US-based weather analytics software provider that counts agribusiness Monsanto as an investor, completed a $5.25m series B round yesterday that was led by True Ventures and backed by 4490 Ventures and Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund. The company has now raised more than $22m to date including $7.5m from the same three investors in November 2018. Its earlier backers include Monsanto unit Monsanto Growth Ventures, SK Ventures, CSA Partners, Gener8tor, Bolt, Vegas Tech Fund and Andrew C. Payne.
India-based retail analytics software provider Peel-Works has secured $5m in a series B round that included Unilever Ventures, consumer goods producer Unilever’s corporate venturing unit, the Economic Times reported on Monday. Equanimity Ventures led the round, which also featured financial services firm HDFC Bank, Chiratae Ventures, Inventus Capital India and private investor Bruno Raschle. Peel-Works had raised $2m from Inventus and IDG Ventures India in 2014, before both joined Unilever Ventures to invest an undisclosed sum in 2017.
Biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences made a $5m equity investment in US-based kidney disease therapy developer Goldfinch Bio on Wednesday as part of a licensing agreement that includes a $55m upfront payment, $54m in development financing and up to $1.95bn in milestone payments. Goldfinch had previously received $55m in series A funding from healthcare VC firm Third Rock Ventures in 2016.
Go-Ventures and Allianz X, subsidiaries of ride hailing service Go-Jek and insurance firm Allianz, have provided an undisclosed amount of series B funding for Uganda-based on-demand ride platform SafeBoda, DealStreetAsia reported on Tuesday. Non-profit innovation fund Global Innovation Fund supplied $230,000 of convertible note financing for SafeBoda in 2016, and undisclosed sources told Digest Africa it also raised $1.1m from unnamed investors in January 2018.
LunaPBC, the US-based owner of genomic and healthcare data platform developer LunaDNA, completed a $4.6m funding round on Wednesday that included Illumina Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of genomics technology producer Illumina, and F-Prime Capital, a subsidiary of investment and financial services group Fidelity, as well as Arch Venture Partners, Bain Capital Ventures and Osage University Partners. It had closed a $4m round featuring Illumina Ventures, among other investors, in May 2018.
Broadcaster Sky yesterday added an undisclosed amount to the series C round raised by Canada-based digital video technology provider You.i TV in November 2018. You.i TV secured $23m in the first close, which included media and entertainment group WarnerMedia, Causeway Media Partners, Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors and Vistara Capital, and which boosted the company’s overall funding to $50m.
Reinventure Group, the VC firm funded by financial services firm Westpac, has co-led a A$6.5m ($4.5m) funding round for Australia-based cybersecurity software developer Kasada, Australian Financial Review reported on Monday. VC firm Main Sequence Ventures co-led the round, which came after $1.9m from Reinventure and VC firm Our Innovation Fund in March 2018.
Sonae Investment Management, the corporate venturing arm of diversified conglomerate Sonae, invested an undisclosed sum in Singapore-based network automation technology provider Cellwize on Tuesday. Cellwize received $14.5m in a series A round co-led by Carmel Ventures and Vintage Investment Partners in 2015 together with a $10m credit facility from Viola Credit, before adding an undisclosed sum from telecommunications firm Deutsche Telekom’s corporate venturing unit, Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners, in December 2018.
Motorcycle producer TVS Motor Company has provided $3.85m in series A funding for India-based supply chain management software provider TagBox, the Economic Times reported on Wednesday. The investment, made by TVS and its Singaporean subsidiary, will go to research and product development in addition to international growth.
Future Standard, the Japan-based developer of video analytics software platform Scorer, has raised about ¥400m ($3.6m) in funding from investors including electrical equipment manufacturer Toyo Tsushin Kogyo and IT services provider TIS, TechCrunch Japan reported on Monday. The corporates were joined by Incubate Fund, Spiral Ventures Japan, AG Capital, Hack Ventures and Hiroshima Venture Capital, and it came in the wake of $1.1m in funding in January 2016 and a further $1.9m in July 2017.
Japan-based business automation technology provider Allganize secured $3.4m on Wednesday in a series A round led by seed-stage fund SparkLabs Global Ventures and backed by KDDI Open Innovation Fund, a vehicle formed by telecoms company KDDI. KDDI Open Innovation Fund had provided $1m of seed capital for the company in December 2017, and the latest funding will go to hiring artificial intelligence experts and expanding in the US, Japan and South Korea.
Caster, the Japan-based operator of online personal assistant Caster Biz, has received ¥360m ($3.3m) in funding from digital media company Gunosy and financial services firm Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, through their Gunosy Capital and SMBC Venture Capital units respectively, VentureTimes reported on Wednesday. It will allocate the proceeds to recruitment and marketing.
Samsung Next, a corporate venturing subsidiary of consumer electronics manufacturer Samsung, has co-led a funding round of undisclosed size for Theta Labs, the US-based developer of a decentralised video streaming platform, Forbes reported yesterday. Blockchain co-led the round, which also featured Uphonest Capital, Wei Fund, Igen Fusion Capital and undisclosed private investors.
Martlet, the corporate venturing vehicle for aerospace, defence and property group Marshall of Cambridge, invested in UK-based digital therapeutics developer Closed Loop Medicine yesterday as part of a £2.1m ($2.7m) funding round. Longwall Venture Partners, IQ Capital and angel investors including Sherry Coutu also took part in the round, which followed an undisclosed amount of seed capital from Cambridge Angel Network in 2017 and a similarly undisclosed sum from Longwall Venture Partners and Cambridge Angels the following year.
Ulobby, the Belgium-based creator of a software platform that helps monitors the status of political issues, secured an undisclosed amount of funding on Tuesday from regulatory and business data provider Cullen International. It had received $70,000 from Innovationsfonden before adding $150,000 from investment and development firm Capnova and an undisclosed sum from Capnova and angel investors Jens Egelund, Michael Bjørnlund, Erik Jacobsen and Jacob Holmblad in May 2018.
Canada-based tenant engagement software developer Lane has received $2.5m in funding from investors including Colliers Proptech Accelerator Powered by Techstars, the accelerator backed by commercial property developer Colliers, Real Estate Weekly reported yesterday. The round also featured Alate Partners and Panache Ventures, and Lane will use the funding to grow its team as it looks to open offices in New York and Los Angeles to support its expansion into the US.
Voyage Ventures and Mitsui Sumitomo Capital, subsidiaries of media and advertising technology provider Voyage and insurance group Mitsui Sumitomo, have participated in a ¥270m ($2.5m) funding round for Taskey, the Japan-based owner of chat-focused fiction app Peep, TechCrunch Japan reported today. The round also featured Global Brain, Global Catalyst Partners Japan, and Sansei Capital, and it followed approximately $1.35m from unnamed investors in July 2018.
Journey Meditation, the US-based creator of a group meditation app, raised $2.4m on Tuesday in a seed round featuring Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, a corporate venturing subsidiary of media group Bertelsmann. The round was led by Canaan and included Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, Betaworks, The Fund, Nelstone Ventures, New York Venture Partners and undisclosed angel investors. The deal was disclosed alongside the official launch of its Journey Live app.
AP Ventures, the VC firm backed by metals supplier Anglo American Platinum, provided an undisclosed amount of funding for UK-based gas-to-liquid technology producer Greyrock Energy on Monday. Greyrock’s only publicly disclosed funding was supplied by Anglo American Platinum in 2016, and the companies have worked together since.
Times Internet and Gree Ventures, respective subsidiaries of media group Bennett, Coleman & Co and internet company Gree, have co-led a $1.6m pre-series A round for Classplus, an India-based developer of software for educational tutors, YourStory reported yesterday. The round included Spiral Ventures and Rising Stars Fund, the latter having led a round of undisclosed size for Classplus (then known as XPrep) in September 2017 that also featured angel investors including Manish Amin and Chavi Jafa.
Mobile game publisher Akatsuki invested an undisclosed amount in Japan-based community management app developer Kou on Wednesday. Akatsuki founder and CEO Motonori Shiota has joined Kou’s board of directors in connection with its investment, which will be used for hiring and product development.
Japan-based unmanned aerial vehicle producer TerraDrone has formed an Angola-based offshoot called TerraDrone Angola that has received an undisclosed sum from oil and gas industry services provider Ocean Atlantic International, VentureTimes reported on Wednesday. TerraDrone Angola will look to work with the fossil fuel industry on activities in Africa.
Freecracy, the Japan-based operator of business networking app FreeC, has raised ¥40m ($470,000) in funding from Voyage Ventures and VC firm Assertive Investment, TechCrunch Japan reported yesterday. The company has 20,000 users and it plans to expand into Vietnam before moving into Thailand and Indonesia.
Mobile game developer Nazara Technologies has supplied an undisclosed amount of funding for Bakbuck, the India-based operator of a social platform for online contests, VCCircle reported on Tuesday. The startup will put the funding toward user acquisition and product development as it prepares to expand its offering to 10 Indian languages.
Peiky, a Colombia-based developer of software that assists social retailers, received an undisclosed amount of funding from Wayra, telecoms company Telefónica’s open innovation arm, last month. The startup’s app has been downloaded some 35,000 times, and it aims to reach 500,000 users by the end of this year.
