Fund
Japan-headquartered consumer electronics manufacturer Panasonic has teamed up with SBI Investment, a subsidiary of financial services provider SBI Holdings, to form an ¥8bn ($57.7m) corporate venturing vehicle called PC-SBI Investment Limited Partnership. Also known as Panasonic Kurashi Visionary Fund, it will back developers of lifestyle, energy, food and spatial infrastructure technologies based in Japan and elsewhere.
M&A
Educational programme provider African Leadership Group has agreed to acquire Holberton, the US-based provider of an online learning platform for software engineering, for an undisclosed amount, allowing educational publisher Pearson to exit. The corporate’s Pearson Ventures unit had invested in the company’s $20m series B round in March 2021, hiking its overall funding to $33m.
Funding
| Company | Company description | Sector | Country | Round | Round size($m) | Deal date | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monolith | Clean hydrogen, carbon black and ammonia developer | Industrial | US | N/A | 300 | 14/07/2022 | NextEra Energy, SK Group, Mitsubishi Group (Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America); TPG (TPG Rise Climate) (lead), BlackRock/Temasek (Decarbonization Partners), Azimuth Capital Management |
| Safe (FKA Gnosis Safe) | Blockchain fund management tool developer spun off by Gnosis | IT | UK | N/A | 100 | 12/07/2022 | Superscrypt, 1kx (lead), Tiger Global, A&T Capital, Blockchain Capital, Digital Currency Group, Greenfield One, Rockaway Blockchain Fund, ParaFi, Polymorphic Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners |
| Gravie | Health benefits provider | Healthcare | US | E | 90 (updated) | 14/07/2022 | Axa (Axa Venture Partners); Georgian (lead), FirstMark, Split Rock Partners, Revelation Partners |
| Nyobolt | Fast charging battery developer | Energy and Natural Resources | UK | B | 59 | 15/07/2022 | Masan High-Tech Materials (HC Starck Tungsten Powders) (lead); IQ Capital |
| Manifold Bio | Protein theraputics developer | Healthcare | US | A | 40 | 14/07/2022 | Tencent; Triatomic Capital (lead), Section 32, FPV Ventures, Horizons Ventures, Playground Global, Fifty Years, GettyLab (Fast by GettyLab) |
| Lightyear | Global investment platform | Financial | UK | A | 25 | 14/07/2022 | Virgin Group; Lightspeed Venture Partners (lead), Mosaic Ventures, Taavet+Sten |
| Aquabyte | Fish farm-focused AI technology developer | Industrial | Norway | B | 25 | 13/07/2022 | SoftBank (SoftBank Ventures Asia) (lead); The Nature Conservancy, Westerly Winds |
| Fulcrum BioEnergy | Landfill waste-derived fuel developer | Energy | US | N/A | 20 | 12/07/2022 | SK Group (SK Innovation) |
| Wysa | Digital therapeutics developer for mental health | Healthcare | India | B | 20 | 14/07/2022 | Alphabet (Google Assistant Investments); HealthQuad (lead), British International Investment, W Health Ventures, Kae Capital, Pi Ventures |
| Morrow Eyewear | Autofocal eyewear developer | Healthcare | Belgium | N/A | 10 | 13/07/2022 | Zeiss Group (Zeiss Ventures) |
| Arkive | NFT-equipped museum management system provider | Media | US | N/A | 9.7 | 13/07/2022 | Coinbase (Coinbase Ventures), Coil; Offline Ventures (co-lead), TCG Crypto (co-lead), Precursor Ventures, NFX, Freestyle Capital, Not Boring Capital, Chainforest, Julia Lipton, Joe McCann, Chris Cantino, Marty Bell, Paul Veradittakit |
| Hyperface | Credit card-as-a-service platform developer | Financial | India | Seed | 9 | 13/07/2022 | Flipkart (Flipkart Ventures); 3one4Capital (lead), Global Founders Capital, Better Capital, Groww, Rebalance Angel Community |
| Bobidi | AI model testing platform developer | IT | US | Seed | 5.8 | 14/07/2022 | Hyundai Motors Company (Hyundai Motors Group Zer01ne), Meta (New Product Experimentation); Y Combinator, We Ventures, Scrum Ventures, Lotte Ventures, Atlas Pac Capital |
| ZKX | Trading strategy-focused permissionless protocol provider | Services | UAE | Seed | 4.5 | 15/07/2022 | StarkWare, Alameda Research, Amber Group, Huobi, Crypto.com; Sandeep Nailwal, Ashwin Ramachandran |
| Carbon Equity | Digital impact investment platform | Financial | Netherlands | Seed | 1.8 | 14/07/2022 | SkyNRG; 4Impact (lead), WiVenture, AENU, Bloomon founders |
| Chooose | Climate technology developer | IT | Norway | N/A | N/A | 14/07/2022 | Amadeus (Amadeus Ventures) |
| Web3 Pro | White-label NFT platform developer | Financial | US | N/A | N/A | 14/07/2022 | Sumitomo Corporation of Americas (Presidio Ventures) |
| CareStack | Dental industry-focused cloud technology developer | Healthcare | US | N/A | N/A | 12/07/2022 | Straumann Group |
| Nash Renewables | Business optimisation software provider for wind energy product developers | Energy and Natural Resources | Germany | N/A | N/A | 14/07/2022 | TGS |
| Recomot | Operator of remote work cybersecurity service Moconavi | IT | Japan | N/A | N/A | 15/07/2022 | JA Mitsui Leasing, Revamp, Bank of Yokohama (Yokohama Capital’s Kibo Fund) |
