Funding
Indonesia-based logistics service provider Shipper has raised $63m in series B funding from investors including Prosus Ventures, the investment arm of e-commerce and media group Naspers’ Prosus unit, e27 reported today. DST Global and Sequoia India co-led the round, which also featured Floodgate, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Insignia Venture Partners, AC Ventures and Y Combinator. Shipper had secured up to $20m in a May 2020 series A round backed by Naspers, Lightspeed, Insignia and AC Ventures to increase its overall funding to $25m.
Laihua, a China-based animation creation platform developer backed by online video platform V1 Group, has secured RMB166m ($25.4m) in a series B3 round led by investment firm Zhencheng Capital that included Infinity Capital, DealStreetAsia reported today. It had reportedly raised an eight-figure yuan amount (RMB10m = $1.5m) in a 2016 pre-series A round, $5.1m in a March 2017 series A and another eight-digit yuan amount in a December 2017 series B led by V1 and backed by QF Capital. The company added an undisclosed amount of series B2 funding from Puwei Capital in March 2020.
Gradient AI, a US-based insurance software developer backed by insurance firm MassMutual, has received $20m in a series B round featuring MassMutual Ventures and American Family Ventures, on behalf of insurance providers MassMutual and American Family respectively, Boston Business Journal reported yesterday. Sandbox Insurtech Ventures and Forte Ventures also took part, having co-led a $6m series A round for the company in October 2019 that also featured MassMutual Ventures, which had previously taken part in a $5m round for Gradient nine months earlier.
Media company Hindustan Media has agreed to invest $7.4m in India-based business-to-business e-commerce marketplace Beldara through corporate venturing arm Hindustan Media Ventures, YourStory reported yesterday. The unit has already provided $4.2m for a first tranche and the cash will support marketing as well as Beldara’s recently launched agriculture-focused offering, Farm 2 Globe.
Heat Media, a US-headquartered digital media startup that plans to share revenue with its writers, has raised about $7m from investors including 40 North Media, a corporate venture capital vehicle for industrial group Standard Industries, the New York Times reported yesterday, citing a person with knowledge of the matter. Private equity group TPG is also among its backers and is taking three seats on its board of directors.
Pico, a US-based content monetisation tool provider backed by media groups Axel Springer and Bloomberg, has secured an amount reported by TechCrunch to be $6.5m, in a funding round led by VC fund Bullpen Capital. The company said it has now raised $10m in total, and the financing followed a $4.5m seed round in May 2019 co-led by digital payment technology provider Stripe and Precursor Ventures that included the Bloomberg-sponsored Bloomberg Beta, Axel Springer’s Digital Ventures unit and Village Global.
Philippines-based consumer credit provider Plentina has completed a $2.2m seed round that included conglomerate JG Summit’s JG Digital Equity Ventures unit, TechCrunch reported today. The round was co-led by Unpopular Ventures, DV Collective and Andrew Vigneault, the former CEO of semantic search software provider ClearGraph, and it also featured Amino Capital, Canaan Partners Scout Fund and Ignite Impact Fund. The startup had been part of Techstars & Western Union Accelerator, an initiative backed by money transfer service Western Union, in June 2020.
Wyng, a US-based zero-party data software producer backed by media group Hearst and enterprise software provider Salesforce, has received $2m in funding from existing backers including Edison Partners and Windcrest Partners. The company had previously raised about $34m in equity funding between 2010 and 2017 according to securities filings, and its earlier investors include Hearst subsidiary Hearst Ventures, Salesforce unit Salesforce Ventures and VC firm Converge as well as Edison Partners and Windcrest Partners.
Digital payment technology provider Smaregi has taken part in a ¥190m ($1.8m) funding round for Japan-based mobile ordering platform developer LBB through subsidiary Smaregi Ventures. The round was led by VC firm Hack Ventures, included Future Venture Capital and took LBB’s total funding to about $3m. Smaregi Ventures first revealed it had invested in the company in February this year, the same month as Future Venture Capital disclosed it was an investor through Osaka Social Problem Solving Fund, a joint venture with financial services firm Osaka Shinkin Bank.
InStreamly, a US-based provider of content monetisation tools for livestreamers, has secured €1.1m ($1.3m) in seed funding from investors including Colopl Next and PKO TFI, investment vehicles for mobile game developer Colopl and financial services firm PKO Bank Polski respectively. The corporates were joined by VC firm Supernode Global and the round followed an undisclosed sum from Smok Ventures in July 2020.
Dieter von Holtzbrink Ventures, a VC firm affiliated with publishing group Holtzbrinck, has led a seven-digit euro round (€1m = $1.2m) for Virtonomy, a Germany-based developer of software intended to help medical device makers get approval for their products more quickly. Bayern Kapital, Initiative for Industrial Innovators and Plug and Play also participated in the round.
EF Polymer, a Japan-based developer of organic polymers that help convert food waste into usable materials, closed a ¥40m ($360,000) seed round last month featuring MTG Ventures, the VC arm of brand development group MTG, it announced yesterday. The round included Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University’s OIST Startup Accelerator Program, Yosemite, Beyond Next Ventures and angel investor Tatsuya Suzuki.
Anplat, the Japan-based developer of a bioinformatics analysis product called Ancat, has also received ¥40m ($360,000), in a seed round featuring telecommunications and internet group SoftBank’s artificial intelligence fund, Deepcore. The corporate was joined in the round by VC firm Anri.
Nanotis, the Japan-based developer of an infectious disease diagnostics device, has raised an undisclosed amount of pre-series A funding from optical equipment producer Hamamatsu Photonics and printing and sensor technology provider Nissha to increase its overall funding to ¥80m ($740,000). The company, which was spun out of University of Tokyo, had previously secured $400,000 from Hamamatsu Photonics, Shizuoka Capital and unnamed angel investors in 2018 and an undisclosed amount of pre-series A funding from pharmaceutical firm Taisho Pharmaceutical in May 2020.
M&A
Healthcare technology producer Olive is acquiring clinical efficiency software developer Empiric Health for an undisclosed sum, allowing healthcare provider Intermountain Healthcare to exit. Intermountain co-founded Empiric with investment and professional services firm Oxeon Partners in 2017 and supplied $3m in seed capital for the company later the same year through corporate venturing unit Intermountain Ventures. It has since provided additional ongoing funding, according to a press release announcing the deal.
Additional reporting by Liwen-Edison Fu.
