Funding
Canada-based academic support software provider Paper completed a $270m series D round consisting of both primary and secondary funding yesterday, with telecoms and internet group Softbank’s Vision Fund 2 co-leading it with venture capital firm Sapphire. They were joined by Salesforce Ventures, a subsidiary of enterprise software producer Salesforce, as well as IVP, Framework Venture Partners, Bullpen Capital, Reach Capital, BDC Capital and Red House Education.
US-headquartered military energy system provider Epirus secured $200m yesterday in a series C round featuring military vehicle manufacturer General Dynamics Land Systems at a $1.35bn valuation. Funds and associates advised by T Rowe Price led the round, which included 8VC, Bedrock, Broom Ventures, Epiq Capital Group, Gaingels, I Squared Capital, Moore Strategic Ventures, Parkwood, Piedmont Capital Investments, Red Cell Partners and StepStone Group.
Telecoms and internet group SoftBank took part in a $170m series B round for US-based e-commerce package delivery service Veho through its Vision Fund 2 yesterday. Investment firm Tiger Global Management led the round, which was also backed by General Catalyst, Bling Capital, Construct Capital, Industry Ventures and Origin Ventures. The company said it has now raised $300m altogether.
SoftBank Vision Fund 2 also led a $144m series C-plus round for Singapore-headquartered online lending platform developer Funding Societies today. Rapyd Ventures, the investment arm of payment technology provider Rapyd, was among the other investors, as were social media and digital entertainment group VNG Corporation, EDBI, Indies Capital, K3 Ventures and Ascend Vietnam Ventures, while undisclosed others supplied another $150m in debt financing.
Diversified conglomerate Reliance Industries recently invested $132m in Addverb Technologies, an India-based provider of automation technology for use in warehouses, the latter disclosed yesterday. The cash will be used to open an office in the United States.
France-headquartered cloud connectivity software provider InterCloud received €100m ($113m) in series D funding yesterday from investors including Open CNP, the corporate VC subsidiary of CNP Assurances. The round was led by investment firm Aleph Capital and also backed by Ventech.
WSC Sports, the US-based creator of a software platform which uses artificial intelligence to automate sports highlight packages, completed a $100m series D round yesterday featuring semiconductor technology producer Intel’s corporate venturing vehicle, Intel Capital, and conglomerate Ofer Global’s OG Tech fund. Investment management firm Ion Crossover Partners led the round, which included Detroit Venture Partners.
US-based drug discovery technology developer Terray Therapeutics emerged from stealth yesterday with $60m in series A financing from investors including Alexandria Venture Investments, the VC arm of life sciences-focused real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities. The round was led by Madrona Venture Group and also backed by KdT Ventures, Goldcrest Capital, XTX Ventures, Sahsen Ventures, Greentrail Capital, Two Sigma Ventures and Digitalis Ventures, the last two having previously supplied $20m in seed capital.
AndHealth, a US-based developer of virtual treatments for migraine and autoimmune disorders, has secured over $57m in financing from investors including Health 2047 Capital Partners, which participated on behalf of the American Medical Association. Investment firm Francisco Partners led the round, which also featured Kirkland & Ellis and Twofold Ventures.
Mining company Glencore invested £40m ($54m) in UK-based battery cell manufacturer Britishvolt yesterday as the first tranche of its series C round. The cash is intended to form part of a round co-led by financial services firms Bank of America, Citibank and Peel Hunt with a £200m target for its close.
Goqii, the India-headquartered operator of a diversified digital health offering, secured $50m yesterday in a series C round featuring diversified trading group Mitsui and media company Bennett Coleman & Co. Technology investment fund Sumeru Ventures led the round, which included 9 Unicorns, Venture Catalysts, private investors Akbar Khan and Sanjay Narang, funds advised by MegaDelta and a venture debt portion co-led by Blacksoil Capital and Trifecta Capital.
Switzerland-based therapeutic antibody developer Memo Therapeutics completed a €37m ($42.1m) series B round today having added €23m from Fresenius Medical Care Ventures, on behalf of kidney dialysis service provider Fresnius Medical, as well as financial services provider Zürcher Kantonalbank, Adjuvant Capital, GF Group, Verve Ventures and Vesalius Biocapital. The November 2020 first close included Zürcher Kantonalbank’s Swisscanto Invest vehicle, Bernina BioInvest and existing backers Investiere, Schroder Adveq, Jaquet Partners and Redalpine as well as unnamed private investors.
US-based healthcare digitisation technology developer Memora Health closed a $40m financing round backed by healthcare provider Edward Elmhurst Health yesterday. The round was led by Transformation Capital and included Andreessen Horowitz, Frist Cressey Ventures, AlleyCorp and unnamed other investors.
FitOn, the US-based operator of a digital fitness app, secured $40m from investors including talent representative United Talent Agency’s UTA VC fund yesterday. Delta-v Capital led the round, which was also backed by Accel, Maverick Ventures, Second Avenue Partners and Mantis VC.
Centauri Therapeutics, a UK-based developer of immunotherapies for infectious diseases, raised £24m ($32.5m) in series A funding today from investors including pharmaceutical firms Evotec, Boehringer Ingelheim (through its Venture Fund) and Novo (through its Repair Impact Fund) as well as Animatrix Founders’ LAK Holdings vehicle, Kent Life Science and Wren Capital. Boehringer Ingelheim took part through its Venture Fund while Novo invested through its Repair Impact Fund. Johannes Zanzinger of Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund, Karen Lackey of Evotec and Camilla Petrycer of Repair Impact Fund are all taking board seats at Cenaturi.
UK-headquartered holiday accommodation marketplace Plum Guide expanded a series B round featuring media group Hearst’s investment arm, Hearst Ventures, to $31m today. The round was led by Beringea and included Talis Capital and Latitude – both having joined Hearst Ventures in Plum’s $18.5m series A round in 2019 – in addition to a $3.5m crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube.
Insurance firm IAG has co-led a A$28m ($20m) funding round for Australia-based online car dealership Carbar with media company Seven West Media, Startup Daily reported yesterday. IAG had acquired a majority stake in the company through an $11.6m round in 2019 that included undisclosed private investors.
Luxembourg-headquartered electric car rental service UFODrive secured $19m yesterday in a funding round co-led by car rental service Hertz and private equity firm Certares. They were joined by unnamed existing backers, and Jayesh Patel, senior vice-president of strategy for Hertz, will take a seat on the company’s board of directors in connection with the round.
Toreta, a Japan-based provider of digitalisation technology aimed at restaurants, raised ¥2.03bn ($17.5m) in equity and debt financing today from investors including printing services firm Toppan, human resources group Recruit Holdings’ HR Tech Fund and internet group Tencent’s Image Frame Investment (HK) unit. They were joined by financial services firm Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings’ Sumi Trust Investment subsidiary and Okasan Capital Partners, which invested on behalf of brokerage Okasan Securities.
Mundi, a US-headquartered provider of digital export finance, has received $16m in series A funding from investors including Mexico-based financial services firm Monex and private banking firm AndBank, TechCrunch reported yesterday. Union Square Ventures led the round, which also featured diversified holding company Exor, Upper90, FJ Labs, Base10 Partners, Alleycorp, Operator Partners and undisclosed individuals.
Carmaker BAIC’s Industry Investment Fund has led a series B round of undisclosed size for China-based autonomous trucking software developer TrunkTech, China Money Network reported today. Zhengzhou SDIC and PreIPO Capital also contributed to the round.
US-based metal processing and recycling technology developer Nth Cycle completed a $12.5m series A round co-led by steel supplier Frankstahl’s corporate venturing unit yesterday. VC firm VoLo Earth co-led the round, which included insurance firm Massachusetts Mutual Life’s MM Catalyst Fund, commodities trader Mercuria and existing investor Clean Energy Ventures.
US-based investment app developer Swell Financial raised $10m in series A funding yesterday from investors including consumer lending technology provider Elevate Credit and Central Pacific Financial Corp, the owner of Central Pacific Bank. The round was led by an affiliate of alternative credit manager Park Cities Asset Management.
Payment services firm American Express has made a strategic investment of undisclosed size in US-based spend management software provider Airbase through subsidiary American Express Ventures. The cash was provided through a partnership which will involve the company’s product being offered to Amex customers, and it came six months after VC firm Menlo Ventures led a $60m series B round for Airbase valuing it at $600m post-money.
Digital Infrastructure, a US-based startup formed to develop internet-of-things software product Dimo, secured $9m in funding yesterday from investors including decentralised data network provider Streamr. The round was also backed by CoinFund, Lattice, Variant Fund, Slow Ventures, Table Management, Wonder Ventures, Stratos Technologies and assorted angel investors.
Consumer finance provider Contact Financial Holding has supplied $9m in funding for Egypt-based mobile commerce platform developer Wasla, TechCrunch reported yesterday. Wasla had emerged in 2018 with $180,000 in pre-seed funding from angel investors including Omar Barakat, adding $1m in a 2019 seed round featuring Egypt Ventures, Glint Ventures, Ebiktar and undisclosed individuals.
China-based virtual person software developer Next Generation has raised an undisclosed amount of series A3 funding from investors including internet company Netease, China Money Network reported today. VC firm Sequoia Capital China led the round, which also featured China Creation Ventures, Shunwei Capital and The Arena Capital.
Maverick, a company with no formal address that has created a decentralised permissionless protocol designed to trade or stake any asset, received $8m yesterday in a funding round featuring trading firms Altonomy, Capital Markets Trading (through its CMT Digital unit) and Jump Trading (through Jump Crypto) as well as digital currency exchange Gemini’s Frontier Fund and Circle Ventures, on behalf of cryptocurrency technology provider Circle. The round was led by Pantera Capital and included Coral Ventures, GoldenTree Asset Management, LedgerPrime, Spartan Group, Taureon and Tron Foundation.
Drug developer Evotec invested an undisclosed amount in IMIDomics, a Spain-based developer of medical treatments for immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, yesterday. The corporate will also take a seat on IMIDomics’ board of directors in connection with the round, which follows $16.5m in series A funding from pharmaceutical firm Bristol Myers Squibb, DNS Capital, The Pritzker Organization and Tao Capital in July 2021.
Internet technology provider Google’s Gradient Ventures fund participated in a $7m series A round for Singapore-based e-commerce software Appboxo yesterday. RTP Global led the round, which included SciFi VC and existing backers Antler and 500 Southeast Asia in addition to angel investors Huey Lin and Kayvon Deldar.
UK-based male fertility treatment provider ExSeed Health doubled the size of its seed round to $6.8m yesterday with funding from investors including IT services firm Trifork. The extension was led by VC firm Ascension’s Life Fund and also featured Hambro Perks and R42 Group. The company had been co-founded by Trifork subsidiary Trifork eHealth.
Passthrough, the US-based creator of a software platform that streamlines the fund subscription process, received $5m in funding yesterday from investors including Okta Ventures, a subsidiary of identity verification software provider Okta. The round was led by Positive Sum and also backed by Great Oaks VC and Company Ventures.
Trace Finance, the Brazil-headquartered operator of a cross-border digital banking service aimed at startups, raised $4.3m yesterday in a seed round featuring digital currency technology producer Circle’s investment arm, Circle Ventures. The round was led by HOF Capital and included Mantis VC.
US-based neurological disease treatment developer Egret Therapeutics closed a pre-series A round of undisclosed size led by Parkinson’s disease drug developer Fascinate Therapeutics yesterday. The round was filled out by Turret Capital Management and unnamed angel investors.
Japan-based 3D modelling tool developer DataLabs secured ¥130m ($1.1m) in seed funding today from investors including internet and telecoms group SoftBank’s artificial intelligence fund, Deepcore. It participated in the round alongside University of Tokyo’s Innovation Platform.
Spain-headquartered price optimisation software developer Optimus Price has raised €1m ($1.1m) from investors including Wayra, the open innovation subsidiary of telecoms firm Telefónica, EU-Startups reported yesterday. The round included Zone2boost and unnamed angel investors, some through a crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube.
Conglomerate Kuok Group has led a $1m seed round for Riverr, a Singapore-based provider of health data verification software, though subsidiary KSL Maritime Ventures, Tech in Asia reported today. The Singaporean government-owned Seeds Capital also contributed to the round.
M&A
Digital fitness app developer FitOn (see above) revealed yesterday it has paid an undisclosed amount to acquire Peerfit, a personalised fitness plan provider backed by industrial materials processor PAR. Peerfit had raised a total of $41m as of its $18m series C round in 2019, and its other investors include Virgo Investment Group, Ark Applications, Causeway Media Partners and Florida Funders.
Employee analytics software provider Perceptyx bought US-based people analytics software developer Cultivate for an undisclosed sum yesterday, allowing enterprise software producer SAP and Bloomberg Beta, the VC firm sponsored by media group Bloomberg, to exit. Trinity Ventures has led an $8m series A round for the company in 2019 that included Bloomberg Beta, SAP vehicle SAP.io and fellow existing investor Silicon Valley Data Capital to take its total funding to $10m.
Jam, a France-based developer of text message marketing software, was purchased by marketing services firm June Marketing yesterday in a deal of undisclosed size that provided an exit for insurance firm Maif. The corporate’s Maif Avenir subsidiary participated in a $1.1m round for Jam in 2019 alongside Isai and angel investors including Cyril Vermeulen, Pierre Kosciusko Morizet and Pierre Krings.
Additional reporting by Liwen-Edison Fu.
