Funding
Automotive manufacturer BYD has co-led a series A round for Vital Thin Film Materials, a China-based provider of rare materials for use in electronics, sized above RMB1.2bn ($188m), DealStreetAsia reported today. It was co-led by CICC Capital and also featured power management equipment maker TBEA and Sinopec Capital, a subsidiary of oil and gas provider Sinopec.
Arive, the Germany-headquartered operator of an on-demand consumer goods delivery service, received $20m today in a series A round that included media company Hubert Burda’s corporate venturing unit, Burda Principal Investments, Forbes reported. Balderton Capital led the round, which was also backed by Global Founders Capital, 468 Capital and La Famiglia.
India-based flying taxi developer The ePlane Company has raised $5m from investors including online classified listings operator Info Edge, the Economic Times reported today. Speciale Invest and Micelio co-led the round, which also attracted University of Tokyo Edge Capital, 3one4 Capital, Anicut Capital, Thought Ventures, Java Capital, Firstcheque.vc and angel investors including Naval Ravikant. It followed $1m in seed funding from Ravikant, Speciale Invest, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad’s CIIE incubator, Java Capital and Firstcheque.vc in March 2021.
Iraq-based online food delivery service TipTop recently secured $5m in seed funding from mobile operator Korek Telecom, Wamda reported today. Its overall funding now stands at $7m according to Wamda and it will channel the capital into geographical expansion.
Ideo CoLab Ventures, the corporate VC arm of design agency Ideo, has co-led a $3.8m funding round for JPG, the US-headquartered creator of a protocol facilitating the curation of non-fungible token galleries, CoinDesk reported on Friday. The round was co-led with VC firm Electric Capital.
MoMo invested an undisclosed amount in Nhanh.vn, the Vietnam-based developer of a sales management software platform, today. E-commerce company VNP Group incubated Vhanh and it was spun off by the corporate in 2019.
M&A
Internet company Jabbar Internet Group, energy services provider Edgo and diversified holding company Kadi Group Holding have exited Jordan-based point-of-sale software provider POSRocket in an acquisition of undisclosed size by restaurant technology producer Foodics that was disclosed today. It had raised a total of approximately $7.2m as of a $5m round in August 2021.
Public Markets
CinCor Pharma, a US-based developer of drugs for cardio-renal diseases, raised almost $194m on Friday in an initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Market enabling pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly to exit. It priced 12.1 million shares at $16.00 each, in the middle of the $15 to $17 range, and they have since fallen to $13.95, valuing it at $510m. CinCor had raised a total of $193m as of a $143m series B round in October 2021 featuring Eli Lilly vehicle Lilly Asia Ventures.
Vigil Neuroscience, a neurodegenerative disease therapy developer backed by pharmaceutical firm Amgen and Pivotal BioVentures (on behalf of pharmaceutical company WuXi AppTec), floated on Friday in a $98m IPO on the Nasdaq Global Select Market. It consisted of 7 million shares priced at $14.00 each, below the range of $15 to $17 the company had set. Vigil had secured $90m in an August 2021 series B round pushing its overall funding to $140m, and its shares are currently at $11.01, equating to a $311 market cap.
India-based digital commerce platform developer Pine Labs has confidentially filed for an initial public offering in the US that would provide exits for digital payment processor PayPal and financial services firms State Bank of India (SBI) and Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bloomberg reported today. It is reportedly targeting $500m in the offering at a valuation between $5.5bn and $7bn. SBI invested $20m in the company last week to take its total funding to more than $1.2bn, and it was valued at $3bn in a $600m round in July 2021.
