Investment firm Blackstone has provided an undisclosed amount of funding yesterday for Dealpath, a US-based property deal management platform backed by construction firm Bechtel and real estate developers LeFrak and Milstein. All three took part in Dealpath’s $8.2m series A round in 2016, which was led by Formation 8 and backed by Goldcrest Capital and Deep Fork Capital, before it added $4.2m in February 2019 from investors including JLL Spark, a vehicle for real estate services provider JLL.
Generic pharmaceutical producer Simcere has led a $10m series B round for China-based precision oncology drug developer Amwise Diagnostics, DealStreetAsia reported on Wednesday, citing a company announcement. The round came in the wake of an undisclosed amount of series A funding from e-commerce firm Alibaba’s Entrepreneurs Fund, real estate developer Lippo Group and cross-border venture capital firm WI Harper in 2016.
US-based data access and flow tool provider Hasura secured $9.9m on Wednesday in a series A round featuring SAP.io Fund and Strive VC, corporate venturing vehicles for enterprise software producer SAP and digital media company Gree respectively. Vertex Ventures US led the round, which included Nexus Venture Partners and angel investors including James Tamplin, Sam Lambert, Amod Malvia and Michael Stoppelman. The company had received $1.6m in seed funding from Nexus Venture Partners and Strive VC (then Gree Ventures) in 2018.
US-based pet food subscription service Pet Plate completed a $9m series A round on Monday co-led by 301, the strategic investment arm of packaged food producer General Mills, and DFE Capital Management, a vehicle for family office DF Enterprises. The round included Marco Polo, Fernbrook Capital Management, The Yard Ventures and Castor Ventures, the latter two having taken part in Pet Plate’s $4m seed round with Amity Supply – which is backed by advertising agency Derris – Dane Creek Capital, Swat Equity and BrandProject in May 2018.
Rex Health Ventures and Orlando Health Ventures, strategic investment vehicles for care providers UNC Healthcare and Orlando Health, co-led a series C round of undisclosed size for US-based medical device developer BioStable Science & Engineering on Tuesday. The round also featured Longmeadow Health Care Partners, Santé Health Ventures, Solas BioVentures and unnamed existing investors. BioStable received $250,000 in seed capital from Santé Ventures in August and $5.5m in series A funding four months later, but has not revealed details of series B financing.
US-based interactive online platform developer 1World Online has raised $8m in a series A round co-led by Brand Capital, media group Bennett Coleman & Co’s strategic investment arm, and VC firm Defta Capital, which invested alongside Altair Capital and GVA LaunchGurus Fund, Rusbase has reported. Defta Partners, Altair Capital, GVA LaunchGurus, Keiretsu Forum, Berkeley Angel Network, Steltec Capital and Nest HK had invested a total of $4m in 1World before Brand Capital added $4.9m at the end of 2016.
M Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of pharmaceutical firm Merck Group, led a €6m ($6.5m) series A round for single-cell sequencing kit developer Scipio Bioscience on Tuesday. The round also featured Seventure Partners’ Quadrivum I fund, High-Tech Gründerfonds, Financière Arbevel and Investiere, the first two having provided $1.4m in seed funding for Scipio in 2017.
Strattic, the Israel-based developer of a static hosting tool for blogging platform WordPress, has secured $6.5m in seed capital from investors including WordPress owner Automattic, TechCrunch reported on Wednesday. VC firms SignalFire and TenOneTen Ventures co-led the round, which included Accel, Seneca VC, Village Global and angel investor Eric Ries. The oversubscribed round will enable the startup to expand its product team and add more features to the system.
Mobile content distributor MTI has provided ¥720m ($6.5m) in funding for Japan-based cashless payment technology developer Cloudcast. The company raised $250,000 from accounting software producer Yayoi in 2013 and an undisclosed sum from IMJ Investment Partners the following year, before pulling in an undisclosed amount from payment services firm Credit Saison’s Saison Ventures unit and IMJ in 2015. MTI subsequently invested a further $880,000 in 2017.
ProtoPie, a South Korea-based developer of prototyping management software, has received ₩7.5bn ($6.3m) in series A funding from DevSisters Ventures, the investment arm of video game developer DevSisters, as well as Vela Partners, Shinhan Capital, HB Investment, Intops Investment, Wonik Investment Partners and BSK Investment, MT has reported. It raised $3.5m from Posco Venture Capital, part of steelmaker Posco, in addition to Korea Investment Partners and Kolon Investment, for the round’s first tranche in July 2018.
US-based workplace collaboration software developer Air Labs has launched with $6m in funding from investors including media holding company WndrCo, Silicon Angle reported on Wednesday. VC fund Lerer Hippeau led the round, which also featured RedSea Ventures, Advancit Capital and angel investors including ChenLi Wang, Todd Jackson and Kyle Parrish, all of whom are former executives at data storage platform developer Dropbox.
Arima Genomics, a US-based developer of genome sequencing research tools, completed a series A round of undisclosed size on Monday that was co-led by chemical analysis and diagnostics services provider Agilent Technologies. The corporate co-led the round with VC firm Cowin Venture and it also featured Vectr Ventures and Berkeley Catalyst Fund. The capital will support the expansion of the Arima HiC platform along with its customer support capabilities.
Solytic, the Germany-based creator of a data management platform for solar energy data, has secured almost €5m ($5.4m) for the first close of its series A round, it revealed on Monday, with energy utilities EWE and Vattenfall both investing, alongside angel investors including Frank Oliver Lehmann. The round followed $3.7m in seed financing from Vattenfall in March 2018, and fundraising for the latest round remains ongoing.
Japan-based sports video analysis platform Run.Edge received ¥580m ($5.2m) yesterday from investors including telecoms firm KDDI’s Open Innovation Fund, sports media company Data Stadium, digital literature platform Link-U, mobile network operator Crops Corporation, digital media company Mediaseek, educational publisher Obunsha’s Innovation Fund and logistics and medical software producer Quiqsoft. The corporates were joined in the round by Spiral Capital Japan Fund.
Evolv Ventures, the strategic investment vehicle formed by packaged food producer Heinz, provided an undisclosed amount for US-based e-commerce fulfilment technology developer Fabric on Tuesday. Fabric had previously received $136m across three rounds, culminating in a $110m series B led by Corner Ventures and backed by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), La Maison, Temasek and existing investors Innovation Endeavors, Playground Ventures and Aleph in October 2019.
Alkymi, the US-based creator of a tool that picks data out of emails, raised $5m on Wednesday in a seed round that included financial IT services provider SimCorp. The round was led by VC firm Canaan and also featured Work-Bench, the enterprise-focused VC fund Alkymi said was an existing investor, though it has not released details of earlier financing.
Mostly AI, a Germany-based data management software developer backed by telecoms firm Telefónica, closed a $5m financing round led by VC firm Earlybird Venture Capital yesterday. 42 Cap and Push Ventures also participated in the round having supplied an undisclosed amount for the company, which was formed out of Telefónica’s Wayra Germany accelerator, in 2018.
Techspert.io, the UK-based creator of a software platform that utilises artificial intelligence to help users find experts, received approximately £3.8m ($4.9m) on Monday in a series A round led by Nauta Capital and backed by Cambridge Angels, GW Asia Capital and angel investors Zack Feather and John Spearman. It had previously raised nearly $1.3m from Spearman, Angel CoFund and private investor Simon Thorpe in December 2018 and its existing backers include Martlet Capital, the VC arm of aerospace engineering firm Marshall of Cambridge.
China-based autonomous baggage tractor developer Uisee secured an undisclosed amount on Wednesday from industrial technology and appliance producer Robert Bosch’s corporate VC subsidiary, Robert Bosch Venture Capital, as well as Shenzhen Capital and China International Capital Corporation. Details of the company’s earlier funding is not publicly available, but its existing backers include ZhenFund.
Diversified conglomerate Mitsubishi Corporation paid ¥500m ($4.5m) for an 18.4% stake in Crisp, the Japan-based owner of a chain of custom salad bars called Crisp Salad Works, on Tuesday. Founded in 2014, Crisp has built out a network of 15 outlets and launched an app-based office delivery service in 2019.
Rail operator JR East invested an undisclosed amount in Germany-based indoor farm operator InFarm on Wednesday in connection with a fresh produce supply partnership. InFarm secured $100m in a June 2019 series B round backed by Atomico, Balderton Capital, Cherry Ventures, Astanor Ventures and TriplePoint Capital that took its total funding to $135m. Its earlier investors include design agency Ideo, data management software provider Demand Analytics, LocalGlobe, Atlantic Food Labs, Mons Investments and Quadia.
MDI Ventures, the corporate venturing vehicle for telecoms firm Telkom Indonesia, provided $4m in series C funding for Singapore-based e-commerce services provider Anchanto last month, according to DealStreetAsia. The unit led a $4m first tranche of the series C round in mid-2018, following undisclosed amounts from Innosight Ventures, Cub Capital, Scott Anthony and Akshay Mehra in 2014, from IT services firm Transcosmos the following year, and from Transcosmos and e-commerce company Luxasia Group in 2017.
UK-based data science tool developer Gyana has secured £3m ($3.9m) from investors including property developer U+I, TechCrunch reported yesterday. VC firm Fuel Venture led the round, which also featured Green Shores Capital and private investor Biz Stone. The company has now raised a total of $6.8m according to TechCrunch, and its earlier backers include Founders Factory and AI Seed.
Cobee, the Spain-based developer of an employee benefits management platform, has completed a €2.1m ($2.3m) pre-series A round featuring financial services firm Banco Sabadell’s BStartup unit, TechCrunch reported on Monday. Speedinvest and Target Global co-led the round, which included Encomenda Smart Capital, Lanai Partners, Abac Nest, angel investor Chris Bouwer and unnamed existing backers. The startup secured $480,000 from Encomenda Smart Capital, Lanai Partners and Abac Nest in April 2019 before entering the Plug and Play Insurtech accelerator in October 2019.
IT services provider Sonata Software has agreed to acquire up to 17% of US-based logistics management software developer SemiCab through its Sonata Software North America subsidiary, Business Standard reported on Tuesday. The transaction will consist of up to $1.4m in cash and $300,000 of services, the final amount dependent on SemiCab achieiving certain milestones within a year-long period.
Theoria, the Japan-based operator of a financial consulting service, received ¥160m ($1.5m) on Wednesday from SMBC Venture Capital and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, which invested on behalf of financial services firms Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, in addition to VC firms KVP and W Ventures. The company has now raised about $1.8m altogether, having secured an eight-figure yen amount from angel investors including Nobuhiro Ariyasu, Masaru Sunagawa and Masahiko Inada in September 2018.
Naśtent, the Japan-based creator of a sleep aid, secured ¥150m ($1.4m) yesterday in a series A round featuring medical device producer Create Medic. The company said the round increased its overall funding to approximately $4.1m and it came after Naśtent began clinical trials for the system in Belgium and the Netherlands last month.
UK-based income levelling service Wollit has launched with an amount of seed funding reported by Finextra to be £1m ($1.3m), the cash coming from financial services firm BBVA and venture investment platform Anthemis which jointly invested through their BBVA & Anthemis Venture Creation Partnership. Wollit runs a subscription-based service targeted at zero-hour workers that allows them to take home the same amount of pay each month.
Video game developer and publisher Sega has supplied an undisclosed amount of funding for India-based music discovery app developer Flutin, VentureBeat reported on Monday. Flutin had received a total of $340,000 from GHV Accelerator – which invested $100,000 in 2016 when the company was still known as PindropMusic – and various angel investors, before raising an undisclosed sum from singer Sukhbir Singh last month.
We Are Voice, the Sweden-based creator of an online collaborative music platform, has closed a SEK10m ($1m) funding round that included Bonnier Ventures, media company Bonnier’s corporate venturing unit, Nordic 9 has reported. Family office Provider Investment and angel investors Mattias Danielsson and Simon Josefsson also participated in the round, which was completed after the company’s expansion from Sweden to Finland.
Ginkan, the Japan-based creator of a crypto-focused social restaurant dining platform called Synchro Life, received an undisclosed amount from online gifting service Giftee on Wednesday through a strategic partnership deal. The company had raised a total of $1m from marketing services firm Ceres and angel investor Fujio Komura as of 2018 before adding undisclosed amounts from financial services firm Orient Corporation in July 2019 and the VC arm of restaurant and amusement park owner DD Holdings the following month.
Unito, the Japan-based operator of an optimised accommodation platform for digital natives that combines residential and hotel living, raised ¥70m ($630,000) on Tuesday from game testing service Gaiax, angel investors including Shōkei Suda, Naoya Usuba and Jun Tarikino, and Japan Finance Corporation, which provided debt financing. The company said it has now received approximately $1.1m in total, its earlier investors including management consulting firm Skylight Consulting.
Globis Capital Partners, the corporate venturing arm of education services provider Globis, supplied an undisclosed amount of funding for Japan-based online art community operator Osiro Corporation yesterday. Osiro had previously raised undisclosed amounts from web design services provider Ride Media and Design, artist marketing service Cork, financial education provider Financial Academy and assorted angel investors, it said.
Lean on Me, the Japan-based owner of an online platform called Special Learning that offers educational content for developmentally disabled students, secured an undisclosed amount on Wednesday from investors including IT services firm Sakura Internet, marketing agency Synergy Marketing and cloud services provider Smart Value. The corporates were joined by VC firm Samurai Incubate and the round will fund the addition of more content to the platform.
Consumer electronics producer Sony invested an amount in reported by the Irish Times to be almost €500,000 ($540,000) in Ireland-based sports performance monitoring platform Kitman Labs on Wednesday through its Sony Innovation Fund. Kitman had previously raised more than $20m from backers including Bluerun Ventures, Enterprise Ireland and H. Barton Co-Invest Fund in addition to private investor Pete Kight, according to the Irish Times.
Wipro Consumer Care Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of IT services firm Wipro’s Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting subsidiary, is providing an undisclosed amount of funding for India-based men’s grooming brand LetsShave, YourStory reported on Wednesday. Razor supplier Dorco paid an undisclosed amount for a 10% stake in LetsShave in late 2018 and the latest funding will support the expansion of the company’s product range.
Arches, a Japan-based operator of knowledge sharing outlets where customers can access experts in certain fields, closed ¥50m ($450,000) in funding from consulting firm I-Glocal and angel investors including Masashi Suekane and Hiroyuki Ono on Tuesday. It will put the cash toward expanding its business model through Asia and working on a platform that will make its experts’ knowledge accessible online.
Pit In, a Japan-based startup that converts space in old buildings into on-demand work space, raised ¥30m ($270,000) in pre-series A funding today from subsidiaries and employees of real estate portal Toggle Co, in addition to VC fund Digital Base Capital. It currently has seven branches and plans to expand that to 50 by the end of this year.
Wayra Germany, an open innovation subsidiary of telecommunications company Telefónica, invested an undisclosed sum in FlexiWan, an Israel-based developer of software-defined networking software, on Monday. The deal came as part of an agreement whereby Telefónica will explore the possibility of integrating FlexiWan’s applications using the company’s modular infrastructure.
Additional reporting by Liwen-Edison Fu.
