AAA Daily Deal Round Up: August 9, 2021

Daily Deal Round Up: August 9, 2021

Funding

Indonesia-headquartered digital currency exchange Pintu has completed a $35m series A round featuring Alameda Ventures, Blockchain.com Ventures and Coinbase Ventures, on behalf of quantitative trading firm Alameda Research, cryptocurrency technology provider Blockchain.com and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, Coindesk reported today. Venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round, which included Castle Island Ventures, Intudo Ventures, Pantera Capital and unnamed others. The round’s $6m first close in May this year included Gesit Perkasa, a subsidiary of diversified conglomerate Gesit.

US-based small molecule drug developer Aardvark Therapeutics has closed a $29m series B round led by biopharmaceutical company Sorrento Therapeutics. The corporate was joined by Vickers Venture Partners, Premier Partners, BNH Investment, Korea Omega and The Foundation for Prader-Willi Research. The round was preceded by a $15m series A in November 2019 that was co-led by Vickers Venture Partners and Premier Partners and backed by BNH Investment, Korea Omega and undisclosed others.

UPMC Enterprises, the commercialisation subsidiary of healthcare provider UPMC, has co-led a $20m series A round for Smile CDR, a Canada-based provider of health data storage and integration technology. The round was co-led by family office 30 North Group and the proceeds have been earmarked for product innovation.

Zeroheight, a UK-based developer of design software technology for user experience software teams, has received $10m in series A funding from investors including imaging software producer Adobe. VC firm Tribe Capital led the round, which also featured Y Combinator, FundersClub, Expa and angel investors including Tom Preston-Werner, Bradley Horowitz, Irene Au and Nick Caldwell. Adobe had revealed Zeroheight as an Adobe Fund for Design portfolio company in September 2019.

Garena, the online gaming division of consumer and entertainment group Sea, has led a €3m ($3.5m) seed round for Spain-headquartered mobile game studio UnusuAll. The deal came after Garena took part in an $8m round for another mobile game developer, Double Loop Games, in May this year.

Diversified conglomerate Reliance Industries has invested Rs 200m ($2.7m) in India-based electronics producer Neolync Solutions through its Reliance Strategic Business Ventures unit, MoneyControl has reported. Reliance will provide a further Rs 400m by March 2023 depending on the achievement of certain milestones, a move which would give it a 40% stake in Neolync, according to a regulatory filing.

Infrastructure, logistics and consumer product conglomerate CMM Group has co-led a $1.2m for India-based last-mile grocery delivery service StackBox with VC and consulting firm Ecosystem Ventures, Entrepreneur India has reported. LetsVenture also participated in the round along with unnamed existing investors, and the cash will support the expansion of StackBox’s fulfilment centre network as it looks to expand geographically.

Insurance firm West Bend Mutual Insurance has provided $1m in seed financing for CharismaQ, the US-based developer of a coaching and communication software platform for enterprises. The funding from West Bend Mutual – also the startup’s first customer – will be channelled into platform development, sales and marketing activities.

By Robert Lavine

Robert Lavine is special features editor for Global Venturing.