Funding
LeoLabs, a US-based provider of low-Earth orbit mapping software that counts aerospace manufacturer Airbus as an investor, completed a $65m series B round co-led by growth equity firm Insight Partners and venture capital firm Velvet Sea Ventures yesterday. Airbus subsidiary Airbus Ventures co-led its $13m series A round in 2018 with Weru Investment, Japan’s Waseda University’s VC affiliate, investing together with Space Angels and Horizons Ventures. It had received $4m in seed funding from Airbus Ventures, Horizons Ventures and SRI International the previous year.
Locus, a US-headquartered developer of supply chain automation software, secured $50m on Wednesday in a series C round featuring mobile chipmaker Qualcomm’s investment arm, Qualcomm Ventures. The round was led by GIC and included Tiger Global Management, Falcon Edge and angel investors Amrish Rau, Kunal Shah, Raju Reddy and Deb Deep Sengupta, and it valued Locus at about $300m, sources told the Economic Times. It had raised a total of roughly $29m as of a $22m series B round in mid-2019.
Insurance firm Sompo Holdings agreed yesterday to provide $45m in funding for US-headquartered disaster mitigation software provider One Concern through an ongoing strategic partnership. Sompo had invested $15m in the company in an August 2020 deal that took its total funding to $75m. Its earlier backers also include telecommunications and internet group SoftBank’s SB Energy subsidiary, insurance firm American Family, New Enterprise Associates, Sozo Ventures, Plum Alley Investments and Geodesic Capital.
Commercial real estate manager Brookfield Property Group led a $40m series B round for US-based vending machine provider New Stand, TechCrunch reported yesterday. Maywic Select Investments, Fantail Ventures and Raga Partners also contributed to the round, as existing investors, according to TechCrunch, which stated it has now raised more than $56m altogether.
US-based insurance and benefits management software provider Nayya received $37m on Wednesday in a series B round backed by health insurance provider CNO Financial Group, insurance firm Guardian Life and health benefits provider Unum, through Guardian Strategic Ventures and Unum Business Ventures respectively. SVB Capital and Iconiq Growth co-led the round, which also featured Bow Capital, Felicis Ventures, Social Leverage and SemperVirens. The company’s $11m series A round in January this year had increased its total funding to $13.7m.
Synctera, the US-based creator of a partnership banking software platform, raised $33m in series A funding from investors including payment services firm Mastercard on Wednesday. Fin VC led the round, which also featured Lightspeed Venture Partners, Diagram Ventures, Portage Ventures, SciFi Ventures, Scribble Ventures and angel investors including Omri Dahan, Nuno Sebastiao, Tim Sheehan, Tom Williams and Johnny Ayers. It had secured $12.4m in a December 2020 seed round backed by Diagram Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Financial services firms HSBC and ING co-led a $30m series B round for UK-based retail finance software provider Divido on Wednesday that included electronics producer Sony’s Innovation Fund by IGV, American Express Ventures and SBI Investment – on behalf of payment services firm American Express and financial services provider SBI. The round also featured OCS, Global Brain, DG Daiwa Ventures, DN Capital, Dawn Capital and IQ Capital. It came after a $15m series A round in 2018 featuring Mastercard and American Express Ventures that took the company’s overall funding to $18.3m.
SignalWire, a US-based developer of software-defined telecommunications technology, received $30m yesterday in a series B round featuring Samsung Next, a subsidiary of consumer electronics manufacturer Samsung. Prosperity7 Ventures led the round, which included Storm Ventures and private investors Jerry Yang and Dean Drako, and which came in the wake of an $11.5m series A round in 2019 led by Storm Ventures and backed by Samsung Next, Sequoia Scouts, AME Cloud Ventures, Yang, Drako, Ron Neuenberger and Erik Yang.
US-based patient engagement platform developer Antidote Technologies completed a $23.2m funding round yesterday that included Merck & Co’s Global Health Innovation (GHI) Fund. Private equity firm LBO France invested $10m to lead the round, which was also backed by Smedvig Capital and Octopus Ventures. The company has now raised about $51m in total, Merck GHI having led an $11m round in 2017 that also featured Smedvig Capital and Octopus Ventures.
Diversified conglomerate SK led a round of undisclosed size yesterday for Monolith Materials, a US-based developer of gas-to-hydrogen conversion technology. Energy utility NextEra Energy Resources also took part in the round, as did Perry Creek Capital and existing investors Azimuth Capital Management, Cornell Capital and Warburg Pincus. The company raised an undisclosed sum from industrial manufacturer Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America in November 2020, following some $190m in earlier funding.
Nekuino, the Japan-based teleconsultation service provider also known as Next Innovation, increased its series B round to ¥2.25bn ($20.4m) today with an undisclosed amount from mobile game publisher Akatsuki’s Heart Driven Fund. Its overall funding stands at approximately $27m and it last disclosed financing in December 2020. Its earlier investors include online data portal All About, insurance firm Nippon Life, mobile game producer KLab and payment services provider Credit Saison.
United Arab Emirates-based e-commerce holding company Opontia has raised $20m in seed financing from investors including Raed Ventures, the VC arm of conglomerate Almajdouie Holding, TechCrunch reported yesterday. The round consisted of debt and equity financing and also featured Global Founders Capital, Presight Capital, Kingsway Capital and angel investors including Tushar Ahluwalia, Jonathan Doerr and Hosam Arab.
Petrochemical producer Saudi Aramco invested an undisclosed amount in Energy Vault, a Switzerland-headquartered developer of renewable energy storage systems, on Wednesday through corporate venturing unit Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures. Energy Vault had received $110m in an August 2019 series B round led by telecoms and internet group SoftBank’s Vision Fund, having raised an undisclosed amount from Cemex Ventures, the investment arm of building materials producer Cemex three months earlier.
US-based cancer therapeutics developer Stellanova Therapeutics completed a $15.5m series A round yesterday led by drug developer Sporos Bioventures. The companies are linked by founder Harold Levy and the cash will be used to develop Stellanova’s drug discovery platform, increase headcount and advance its lead antibody drug candidate towards clinical trials.
US-based solar coating material developer Next Energy Technologies secured $13.4m in series C funding yesterday from investors including Viracon, a glass fabrication subsidiary of glass product manufacturer Apogee Enterprises, and Gear Innovation Network, part of conglomerate Sinar Mas’ mining and energy subsidiary, Golden Energy and Resources. Holding company Alon Blue Square Israel and real estate family office Rincon Advisors also took part in the round, which followed about $10m in equity funding and $2m in debt financing between 2011 and 2017 according to securities filings.
US-headquartered visual assistance software developer Help Lightning increased its series A round to $11m yesterday, adding $3m from engineering and infrastructure group Larsen & Toubro and corporate innovation and venture platform Engage. The $8m first tranche in August 2020 featured growth equity firm Resolve Growth Partners and came after $850,000 in funding in 2012, $100,000 in debt financing in 2013 and approximately $830,000 in 2016, according to regulatory filings.
Smart Skin Technologies, a Canada-based developer of productivity-focused industrial internet-of-things technology, received C$10.7m ($8.3m) from investors including glass and ceramics product manufacturer Schott yesterday. The round was led by BDC Capital through its Industrial Innovation Venture Fund and it also featured East Valley Ventures and New Brunswick Innovation Foundation. The company secured $3.7m from Rho Canada Ventures, Build Ventures and GrowthWorks Atlantic Venture Fund in 2014 before Schott led a $2.4m round in 2018 that included New Brunswick Innovation Foundation.
IN Venture, a corporate VC vehicle for conglomerate Sumitomo, led an $8m funding round on Tuesday for Genoox, the US-based creator of a community-driven genomic data platform. Infinity Medical also took part in the round, as did Inimiti, Glilot Capital Partners and Triventures, the three investors that had provided $6m for the company in 2018. It had secured a total of $6m from an Inimiti-led seed round and a series A round led by Glilot Capital Partners, which were disclosed at the same time in 2017.
Switzerland-based neobank Neon has raised CHF7m ($7.8m) from investors including insurance firm Helvetia’s Venture Fund, media group TX Group, e-commerce company QoQa Services and Schwyzer Kantonalbank, a subsidiary of financial services firm Swiss Kantonal Bank, Crowdfund Insider reported yesterday. BackBone Ventures also took part in the round, which followed about $5.5m from the same investors in August 2020 to take its overall funding to approximately $10.5m.
Norwegian sovereign wealth fund Norfund has invested $7.5m in Amartha, the Indonesia-based peer-to-peer lending platform developer backed by telecoms firm Telkom Indonesia, messaging platform developer Line and financial services firms Bank Mandiri and United Overseas Bank (UOB), DealStreetAsia reported yesterday. Telkom’s MDI Ventures unit, Bank Mandiri subsidiary Mandiri Capital and UOB’s Venture Management vehicle had all backed a $28m round for Amartha last month that boosted its total funding to $46m.
US-based workforce management software developer Ganaz has secured $7m in series A funding from investors including Taylor Ventures, the corporate VC arm of farm operator Taylor Farms, and agricultural media, data and investment firm AgFunder, the latter revealed yesterday. VC firm Trilogy Equity Partners led the round, which also featured Bessemer Venture Partners, Founders’ Co-op and Techstars. The company had closed a $2.1m round featuring Taylor Ventures, Founder’s Co-op, The Helm, 122West, Grubstakes and GAN Ventures in 2018.
UK-based life insurance advice provider Anorak Technologies has raised £5m ($7m) in series A funding from investors including Kamet, a subsidiary of insurance group Axa, UK Tech Investment News reported yesterday. Outward VC led the round, which also featured Triple Point Ventures and angel investors including Nic Kohler, Paul Evans, Charlie Delingpole and Will Neale. Kamet had supplied $5.6m in seed capital for the company in 2018.
Financial services firm Capital One supplied an undisclosed amount for US-based digital identity technology producer Socure yesterday through corporate VC unit Capital One Ventures. It had raised a total of $196m as of a $100m series D round in March this year led by Accel and backed by financial services firms Synchrony Financial, Citi and Wells Fargo as well as Two Sigma Ventures, Commerce Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, Sorenson Capital and Flint Capital at a $1.3bn valuation.
Norbert Health, a US-based provider of vital sign scanning technology, completed a $5m seed II round yesterday that included diversified holding company Exor. The round was co-led by Serena Capital and HCVC with additional backing from C4 Ventures, LDV Capital and Newlab. The company has not revealed precise details of its earlier funding but said it has now raised $8m altogether.
Enlightened Hospitality Investments, the strategic investment vehicle for restaurant operator Union Square Hospitality Group, provided an undisclosed amount for US-headquartered milk substitute producer NotCo on Wednesday. Founded in Chile, NotCo had raised $3m from Kaszek Ventures and SOS Ventures in 2018 and $30m from Bezos Expeditions, Kaszek Ventures, The Craftory and Indie Bio in March 2019. The latter set of investors joined Future Positive, L Catterton, General Catalyst, Endeavor Catalyst, Humbolt Capital and Maya Capital in an $85m series C round in September 2020.
Chronicle, the Singapore-based developer of a collectible digital card game utilising non-fungible tokens, has received $3.2m in funding from investors including decentralised finance tools provider Bella Protocol, blockchain community 499Block, crypto technology developer Pluto Digital and blockchain technology provider VBC Group, VentureBeat reported on Wednesday. The round was filled out by 4SV, AU21 Capital, Aussie Capital, Blocksync Ventures, DAO Maker, GBV Capital, GravityX Capital, Legos Capital, Magnus Capital, Moonwhale Ventures, Three M Capital, Twin Apex Capital, Vysyn Capital and X21 Digital.
Channel 4 Ventures, the ad-for-equity arm of broadcaster Channel 4, agreed on Wednesday to provide £2m ($2.8m) for Clim8 Invest, the UK-based operator of an online investment platform for green projects. The company raised $8m from 7percent Ventures, British Business Bank Future Fund and assorted angel investors in April this year, following $3.2m in a November 2020 round featuring 7percent Ventures, Basil Capital, Evergreen Fund, EcoSummit Ventures and crowdfunding from a campaign on Crowdcube.
Engineering and product development firm G-Group Technology has invested an undisclosed amount in Vietnam-headquartered smart camera developer Hanet at a $5m valuation, Tech in Asia reported today. Its artificial intelligence-equipped cameras are available for both corporate and home use.
US-based incident response software provider Squadcast has raised $1.2m from IT services firm Wipro at a valuation of over $6m, the Economic Times has reported, citing a regulatory filing on Wednesday. It had reportedly received $2.1m from investors including Nexus Venture Partners and Chiratae Ventures prior to the Wipro investment.
India-based banking technology startup Neokred Technologies has closed a seed round of undisclosed size co-led by Virenxia Group and angel investor Nitin Agarwal, VCCircle reported yesterday. Neokred has developed tools which help businesses launch their own banking services, and Capnetic Consulting Group advised the company on the round.
Additional reporting by Liwen-Edison Fu.
