China-based artificial intelligence technology developer Rich AI has obtained almost $10m in angel funding from investors including Kinzon Capital, the investment arm of conglomerate Fosun, and Yunqi Capital. Founded in 2017, Rich AI is working on natural language processing technology for industries including public security, financial, aerospace and government. It has also developed a text analysis product for law enforcement. The money will go towards technology development and allow Rich AI to enter additional sectors.
Powerhive, a US-based company building microgrids in developing nations, has closed a $9.3m series B round backed by diversified conglomerate Toyota Tsusho as well as Caterpillar Ventures and Total Energy Ventures, respective corporate venturing units of petroleum supplier Total and heavy machinery producer Caterpillar. The round also featured Kouros, To:org, Tao Capital Prelude Ventures and private investor James Sandler. The money will go towards continued expansion plans in Kenya. Powerhive collected $20m in series A funding in 2016 from investors including Total Energy Ventures and Caterpillar Ventures.
Japan-based cosmetics e-commerce platform Noin has raised ¥800m ($7.4m) in a round led by DG Incubation, the corporate venturing subsidiary of internet company Digital Garage, with participation from Strive, a fund operated by digital media company Gree’s corporate venturing unit Gree Ventures, and DK Gate, a joint venture whose backers include Digital Garage and publisher Kodansha. The round also included 500 Startups Japan and Mizuho Capital, financial services firm Mizuho Financial Group’s VC subsidiary. Apart from selling cosmetic products, Noin also provides content targeting female users.
France-based digital olfaction technology producer Aryballe Technologies has collected €6.2m ($7.3m) in a series A round from taste, scent and nutrition ingredients provider IFF and carmaker Hyundai Motor, as well as angel investors Catherine Dunand and Vincent Deltrieu. Aryballe has developed technology that mimics the human sense of smell by exploiting biochemistry, advanced optics and machine learning. The company previously raised $1.8m in seed funding from undisclosed investors in 2014, the same year it was founded.
Retrieva, a Japan-based big data analytics company spun out of technology group Preferred Infrastructure, has collected ¥750m ($6.9m) from SBI Investment, the investment subsidiary of financial services firm SBI, and University of Tokyo Edge Capital (Utec), a VC firm affiliated with the institution. Utec previously injected $2.22m into the company in 2017, the year after Retrieva was spun out by its parent company.
Payme, a Japan-based fintech-based pay-as-you-go services provider, has raised ¥700m ($6.5m) from internet companies Mixi and CyberAgent, along with VC fund Incubate Fund. Payme had previously raised $4.2m in an April 2018 pre-series A round led by Incubate Fund, and featuring business development firm Dream Incubator, Crooz Ventures, mobile game developer Crooz’s corporate venturing and incubator subsidiary, as well as CyberAgent Ventures and seed-stage VC firm TLM.
US-based workplace collaboration software tool developer Swit has collected $6m in a seed round featuring corporate venturing subsidiaries of carmaker Hyundai Motor and financial services firm Mirae Asset Capital, TechCrunch reported yesterday. The round was led by Korea Investment Partners, with the corporates investing through Hyundai Venture Investment Corporation and Mirae Asset Venture Investment. Founded in 2018, Swit has created a suite of productivity tools with features such as task management, communication and calendars designed to support the work of teams. The round increased Swit’s total to $7m, though details of earlier funding could not be confirmed.
Samsung Venture, the corporate venturing arm of technology group Samsung, has put $5.75m into India-based smartphone operating system developer Indus OS in the form of series B capital, TechCrunch reported on Wednesday. Omidyar Network previously supplied $5m in series A funding in 2016, returning in March 2017 to provide an undisclosed sum together with JSW Ventures and Ventureast. Omidyar subsequently contributed to a $4m pre-series B round in December 2017 that brought Indus OS’s total funding to $13m. In addition to its investment in Indus OS, Samsung Venture has also injected undisclosed amounts into India-based speech analytics company Gnani.ai and internet-of-things technology provider Silvan Innovation Labs, revealing only that, combined with its investment in Indus OS, the three deals totaled $8.5m.
Aerospace and defence software producer Analytical Graphics (AGI) has spun out Cesium, a developer of software for 3D geospatial applications, with $5m of series A funding provided by Falcon Global Capital. The cash will support company growth. Cesium is the first spinout to emerge out of AGI, having been an internal project since 2011.
Japan-based news agency JX Press has received ¥500m ($4.6m) from SBI Investment, the corporate venturing subsidiary of financial services firm SBI, and venture capital firm Global Brain. The company has now raised approximately $13m in funding altogether. CyberAgent Ventures, the investment unit of internet company CyberAgent, took part in an April 2018 round together with SBI Investment, Global Brain, news agency Kyodo News, television network TV Asahi, as well as Mitsubishi UFJ Capital and Fuji Startup Ventures, respective investment subsidiaries of financial services firm Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and media group Fuji Media. Public relations company Vector and Quick also took part in the 2018 round, which followed investments by Kyodo News in 2015 and Vector in 2014.
D1g1t, a Canada-based enterprise wealth management platform, has received C$3m ($2.3m) from Illuminate Financial Management to bring its total funding to $9.1m. The company previously received a total of $6.8m across two funding round led by Purpose Financial in November 2018. D1g1t’s shareholders also include VC firms Extreme Venture Partners and Portag3 Ventures, as well as a range of private investors.
Germany-based fintech developer Remind.me has received €2m ($2.3m) of series A capital from investors including Berliner Volksbank Ventures, the corporate venture capital fund for credit union Berlin Volksbank. Public-private partnership High-Tech Gründerfonds took part in the round together with IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft – the venture capital arm of business development bank Investitionsbank Berlin – as well as Econa and unnamed angel investors. IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft invested from its VC fund, Kreativwirtschaft. Founded in 2017, Remind.me offers an online reminder service that notifies the user of possible savings on their electricity and gas bills as well as other financial commitments. The capital will be used for a recruitment drive, as Remind.me continues development of its platform. Remind.me last raised $1.2m in a May 2018 seed round featuring HTGF and unnamed angels.
Japan-based sleep technology developer Neurospace has received ¥170m ($1.57m) from Sompo Holding, adding to an initial $3.05m series A tranche raised in April 2019. The first close included ¥250m in equity funding from property developer Tokyu Fudosan Holdings’ TFHD Open Innovation Program; Tepco Frontier Partners, a subsidiary of electric utility Tokyo Electric Power; MTG Ventures, the corporate VC arm of consumer goods supplier MTG Corporation; Nippon Venture Capital; and joint venture Euglena SMBC Nikko Leave-a-Nest Capital, as well as ¥90m in debt financing from financial services firms Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Mizuho Bank and Tokyo East Shinkin Bank.
Flatt, the Japan-based operator of live commerce application PinQul, has received ¥220m ($2m) from internet company CyberAgent’s Fujita Fund, retailer Dinos Cecile and e-commerce company Mercari’s chief technology officer Suguru Namura, who will support Flatt as a technical adviser in terms of technology and organisation going forward. Flatt will use the money to pivot to a cybersecurity technology developer, focusing on a platform that will enable vulnerability assessments of web services. The company previously raised $250,000 from seven angel investors in April 2018.
AIQ, a Japan-based developer of artificial intelligence-based social media profiling technology called AILink, has raised approximately ¥200m ($1.85m) from several corporate investors and financial institutions, though only internet-of-things data analytics provider And Factory was identified. It is the first time AIQ has received funding since being incorporated 2017. The company has entered into a strategic business partnership with And Factory. AILink makes it possible to identify characteristics of a user, such as age and gender.
US-based app development middleware developer Textile has raised $1.5m in a seed round involving Coinbase Ventures, the corporate venturing fund for digital currency exchange Coinbase. Venture capital firm BlueYard Capital led the round, which also featured Multicoin, SystemOne, Starchain Capital, angel investors Jesse Clayburgh and Henri Stern, and unnamed investors. Textile offers middleware products that help software engineer develop apps for photo management and other purposes, through features such as real-time synchronisation and remote backup. The seed cash will allow Textile to enhance the capabilities of its platform with interoperable data connectors and third-party integrations as well as improvements to a number of core services. BlueYard Capital supplied an undisclosed sum to Textile in May 2018.
PrimeNumber, the Japan-based operator of a data integration automation service for big data analysis platform called Trocco, has raised approximately ¥130m ($1.2m) in a series A round featuring Daiwa Corporate Investment and SMBC Venture Capital, subsidiaries of brokerage Daiwa Securities and financial services firm Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.
With this funding, the company will recruit more data technology engineers, build a customer success team, strengthen its public relations and marketing functions and accelerate business activities aiming to expand overseas by 2020.
India-based audio-focused social media platform Headfone has raised $750,000 in a seed round led by Fosun RZ Capital, the corporate venturing unit of conglomerate Fosun International. Startup accelerator Axilor Venutres also took part in the round, which will go towards recruitment and technology development. The company will also look to grow its customerbase in India.
Indonesia-based on-demand ride and logistics provider Go-Jek has added an undisclosed sum from banking firm Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) as part of its targeted $3bn series F round, DealStreetAsia reported yesterday. Founded in 2010, Go-Jek offers an app-based ride hailing services in more than 50 cities across Southeast Asia, as well as tangential services including on-demand prescription medicines and massages. Go-Jek and Thailand-based SCB will join forces to bolster the ecosystem for payment services through Get, Go-Jek’s Thailand-based subsidiary. Go-Jek has raised more than $2bn in funding altogether, and had secured $1.1bn for its series F round as of March 2019, when conglomerate Astra International supplied $100m. The round’s first $1bn close was co-led by internet group Tencent, e-commerce firm JD.com and internet technology producer Google, with contributions from diversified group Mitsubishi Corporation and Provident Capital. Mitsubishi Corporation later reportedly joined carmaker Mitsubishi Motors and financial services firm Mitsubishi UFJ Lease & Finance to supply a series F extension of undisclosed size in July 2019.
US-based affordable, modular home construction company Factory_OS received an undisclosed amount of funding on Wednesday from architecture software developer Autodesk and financial services firm Citi, which is investing through its Spread Products Investment Technologies (Sprint) initiative. Factory_OS will use the funding to build an educational space called Factory Floor Learning Center in collaboration with Autodesk and the Terner Center for Housing Innovation. The money will also support recruitment for a second factory. Autodesk and Factory_OS will also look to strengthen their collaboration in software development. Factory_OS received $22.7m in funding last month from a total of 17 investors, according to a regulatory filing, though it is unclear if Autodesk’s and Citi’s commitments formed part of that round.
Singapore-based investment research network Smartkarma has obtained a strategic investment of unspecified size from stock exchange owner Singapore Exchange, Sequoia India and Wavemaker Partners. The money will drive global expansion efforts. Founded in 2014, Smartkarma previously raised a total of $21m of funding from Sequoia, Wavemaker, Jungle Ventures, Spring Seeds and private investor Koh Boon Hwee.
Avammune Therapeutics, a US-based immuno-oncology treatment developer spun out of drug discovery company Aten Porus Lifesciences and formerly known as Straximm Therapeutics, has obtained an undisclosed amount of series A capital from a consortium of unnamed private investors. The company does not appear to have previously disclosed any funding.
US-based fuel payment services provider QuikQ has secured an undisclosed amount of capital from truck stop and truck maintenance industry companies Love’s Travel Stops and TravelCenters of America. The money will allow QuikQ to drive continued business growth and further grow its network of more than 3,400 partnered locations of truck stops.
Mellanox Capital, the investment arm of networking equipment supplier Mellanox Technologies, has invested undisclosed sums in US-based storage semiconductor producer CNex Labs and US-based data centre storage processor developer Pliops. CNex previously raised $23m in a series D round led by Dell Technologies Capital, the corporate venture capital subsidiary of computing equipment producer Dell, that also featured Microsoft’s M12 unit in October 2018. Pliops closed a $30m series B round in January 2019 led by led by SoftBank Ventures Asia, a corporate venturing subsidiary of telecommunications and internet group SoftBank, with commitments from Intel Capital, the corporate venture capital arm of semiconductor and data technology provider Intel, data storage equipment producer Western Digital, computing technology provider Xilinx, State of Mind Ventures and Viola Ventures.
Advance Venture Partners, the corporate venturing arm of publisher Advance Publications, has contributed to a series B round of undisclosed size for US-based consumer packaged goods platform Brandable. The round was led by Cota Capital and additionally featured Lightspeed Venture Partners, Pentland Ventures and Fields Texas. Advance and Lightspeed were both identified as returning investors, though details about their previous involvement could not be confirmed.
China-based rocket developer iSpace has closed a series A-plus-plus round backed by asset manager WRK. In January 2019, CDH Investments led a series A-plus round, also of undisclosed size, that featured Matrix Partners China and property developer Galaxy Holding Group. The company, which is unrelated to Japan-based moon exploration firm iSpace, had earlier brought its total funding to $87.3m following a series A round backed by Matrix in July 2018. Its earlier investors include conglomerate Fosun as well as Shunwei Capital, Shanghai Rising Fund Management, Jiutai Lanshan Investment Management, Shuairan Investment and CITIC Juxin.
Israel-based EcoPhage was launched yesterday by Bayer Trendlines Ag Innovation Fund to exploit farm disease control research from Weizmann Institute of Science. Bayer Trendlines Ag Innovation Fund is a VC vehicle established by drug and chemicals firm Bayer’s CropScience unit and venture firm Trendlines. EcoPhage plans to deliver environmentally-friendly disease control products for agricultural applications, building on research by Rotem Sorek, a professor in Weizmann’s Department of Molecular Genetics. It is the second company to spawn from the $10m Bayer Trendlines initiative.
US-based internet-of-things (IoT) networking technology developer Homa Techs yesterday obtained an undisclosed amount of funding from IT firm FPT Corporation’s FPT Software subsidiary. The investment was made as a part of a strategic partnership agreement, with Homa technologies potentially being integrated into FPT’s IoT and artificial intelligence products in the future. Homa on the other hand hopes the deal will allow it to strengthen its market position in Southeast Asia, aiming to attract smart city developers and capturing consumers interested in smart homes.
Singapore-based enterprise software provider AnyMind Group has collected an undisclosed sum from KSK Angel Fund, an investment vehicle for footballer Keisuke Honda. AnyMind operates an advertising platform called AdAsia, a recruitment software subsidiary named TalentMind, an influencer marketing service dubbed CastingAsia and publisher trading desks AcquaMedia and FourM. The company previously raised $8m from advertising services provider VGI Global Media and leasing services firm Tokyo Century in March 2019. It has secured more than $21.4m in funding to date.
Uuum, a Japan-based platform connecting video creators with corporate clients to facilitate sponsored content creation, has entered into a strategic partnership with Piece of Cake, the owner of social media service Note and content distribution site Cakes. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Uuum does not appear to have previously disclosed funding.
Legal services provider OMM Law Office has injected an undisclosed amount into Japan-based educational facilities Riso Kyoiku and Sundai Preparatory School, which offer legal advice and run a tutoring service called Tomas.
– Additional reporting by Callum Cyrus and Liwen-Edison Fu
