Funding
UK-headquartered online stationery retailer Papier raised $50m today from investors including DMG Ventures, the corporate venturing subsidiary of media company Daily Mail General Trust. The round was led by venture capital firm Singular and also featured Lansdowne Partners, Kathaka and existing backers Felix Capital and Beringea.
Vitesse, the UK-based operator of a digital cross-border payment platform, has received $26m in a series B round that included insurance firm HDI Group’s Hannover Digital Investments vehicle. Prime Ventures led the round, which was also backed by fellow venture capital firm Octopus Ventures and private investors Ron Kalifa and Shane Happach.
South Africa-based payment software developer Stitch raised $21m today in a series A round featuring banking software producer TrueLayer and PayPal Ventures, the corporate VC arm of digital payment processor PayPal. The round was led by The Spruce House Partnership and included Firstminute Capital, The Raba Partnership, CRE Venture Capital, Village Global and Zinal Growth.
Consumer electronics manufacturer Xiaomi led a RMB100m ($15.7m) funding round for Chilye, a China-based provider of electric vehicle charging systems, on Friday. Financial holding company Yongjin Group’s Yonghua Investment vehicle also took part in the round, as did Oriza Holdings.
Agot AI, a US-based developer of artificial intelligence technology intended to eliminate mistakes in restaurant orders, has secured $12m from investors including agribusiness Continental Grain’s Conti Ventures subsidiary, TechCrunch reported on Friday. The corporate was joined in the round by Kitchen Fund and Grit Ventures.
Kyro Digital, a US-based startup spun off from web development services provider Sage Digital that has created an application development software platform for Web3 products, has completed a $10m series A round. Avalanche Foundation, which oversees smart contract software platform Avalanche, took part through its Blizzard fund, investing with United Overseas Bank’s UOB Venture Management fund, crypto scaling software producer Polygon, cryptocoin minting technology provider Rally, open-source blockchain developer Tezos, Decasonic, Drive Capital, Fenbushi Capital, Information Capital, Signum Capital, Woodside Incubator and angel investor Brad Koenig.
Telecommunications and internet group SoftBank’s Latin America Fund co-led a $7m seed round for Birdie, the US-headquartered creator of a software platform which analyses data for product lifecycle management companies, with Illuminate Ventures. The round included Fusion Fund, Astella Investimentos and Endeavor Catalyst while Marco Camhaji, managing partner of early-stage investments for SoftBank Latin America Fund, is taking a board seat at Birdie along with Cindy Padnos of Illuminate Ventures.
Micruity, the US-based developer of a software product that facilitates the sharing of income data to inform retirement investments, has completed a $5.1m seed round featuring insurers Western & Southern Financial Group, Pacific Life and Allianz Life, the last a subsidiary of insurance group Allianz. The round was led by SixThirty Ventures and also featured Franklin Templeton, Alpine Meridian Ventures, Great North Ventures and Altari Ventures.
Portals, a social metaverse developer with no official address, received $5m in seed funding on Friday from investors including quantitative trading firm Alameda Research and Solana Ventures, the investment arm of public blockchain platform developer Solana. VC firm Greylock led the round with additional backing from Multicoin Capital, Foundation Capital, Sino Global Capital, Mantis VC, Wave7, Cultur3 Capital, SkyVision Capital, MonkeVentures and angel investors including Justin Kan, Robin Chan and David Grider.
US-based decentralised exchange software developer WingRiders has raised $4.5m in seed financing from investors including blockchain payment software producer Coti. The round was led by blockchain-focused VC firm cFund and also backed by Spartan Group and Longhash.
Diversified conglomerate Mitsui paid an undisclosed amount for a 13.8% stake in Japan-based cognitive measurement technology developer NeU today. The company was formed by microscopy, semiconductor and industrial technology producer Hitachi High-Tech and Tohoku University in 2017.
Vietnam-headquartered metaverse game studio Summoners Arena closed a $3m seed round on Friday featuring blockchain gaming services provider Onechain Technology, play-to-earn gaming platform developer GuildFi, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, blockchain liquidity hub KyberNetwork and crypto wallet developer Coin98 Finance (through Coinbase Ventures, Kyber Ventures and Coin98 Ventures respectively). The round was led by Pantera Capital and included Merit Circle, Cosmic Guild, Istari Ventures, Spartan Group, Impossible Finance, Kyros Ventures and unnamed existing investors.
Chugin Infinity Fund, a joint vehicle for financial services firm Chugoku Bank and its Chugin Lease subsidiary, invested an undisclosed amount in Japan-based online fashion retailer Fabric Tokyo today. The company had raised $9m in January this year for the second tranche of its last round, from Globis Capital Partners – on behalf of education services provider Globis – insurer Nippon Life’s Nissay Capital unit, internet company Mixi’s AA Fund, marketing firm Opt’s Bonds Investment Group (through its Hyogo Kobe Startup Fund) and Fukuoka Financial Group’s FFG Venture Business Partners vehicle as well as debt financing from Shizuoka Bank. That followed a $13m first close in late 2020.
Media company Bonnier has led a £1.8m ($2.4m) funding round for Estonia-based food safety software developer FoodDocs through corporate venturing unit Bonnier Ventures, Nordic 9 has reported. Forward Venture Capital, Spring Capital and existing backer United Angels VC also took part in the round.
Chugin Infinity Fund also took part in Japan-based construction robotics technology developer Ken RoboTech’s ¥270m ($2.3m) series A round today. It was led by investment vehicle Real Tech Fund and backed by financial services firm Iyo Bank’s Iyogin Capital unit (through its Iyo Venture Fund 6), VC firm Mobile Internet Capital’s MIC Innovation Fund 5 and three unnamed angel investors.
Binance Labs, the strategic investment arm of digital currency exchange Binance, supplied an undisclosed amount of funding for Automata Network, the Singapore-based creator of a privacy-focused decentralised service protocol, on Friday. Automata had launched in March 2021 with $1m in funding from quantitative crypto trading firm Alameda Research, KR1, IOSG Ventures, Divergence Ventures and Genesis Block.
Tokinomo, the Romania-headquartered creator of a robotic retail display system, has received $1.7m in pre-series A funding from investors including retail marketing services firm Instore Power Provider. The company said the round was led by undisclosed angel investors and also backed by Early Game Ventures.
Financial service providers Forbright Bank and Cross River have taken part in a debut round of undisclosed size for US-based online solar loan provider Sunstone Credit, the latter through subsidiary Cross River Digital Ventures. They were joined by Maryland Momentum Fund, on behalf of University System of Maryland, in addition to Grotech Ventures and Early Light Ventures.
Cubbi, the Canada-based connected fridge developer formerly known as Arctic Shelf, has raised C$1.35m ($940,000) in a seed round led by Conexus Venture Capital on behalf of credit union Conexus, Betakit has reported. Angel investors Jerry Grandey, Malcolm Leggett and Jim Newton also participated.
Japan-based autonomous transportation robot developer Takumi secured an undisclosed sum from communications equipment producer Future Innovation Group today through a business partnership agreement. Takumi had previously raised undisclosed amounts from software development services provider Scrum Software in June 2020 and intelligent robot developer QibiTech the following month.
Diversified business group SAT Industries has taken part in a $300,000 seed round for Toroi Technologies, the India-headquartered operator of online fantasy gaming platform Fantasy Trading League, VCCircle reported on Friday. Artha Venture Fund led the round, which also featured angel investor Akhil Jalan.
South Africa-based big data services provider The Awareness Company is set to raise an undisclosed amount from software producer Microsoft, Disrupt Africa reported on Friday. The investment is linked to the company’s participation in Microsoft South Africa’s AgriTech Programme.
Additional reporting by Liwen-Edison Fu and Thierry Heles. Photo courtesy of Papier.
