AAA Daily Deal Round Up: March 21, 2022

Daily Deal Round Up: March 21, 2022

Funding

Cresta, a US-based provider of contact centre intelligence, has completed an $80m series C round featuring call centre software provider Five9, communications software producer Zoom, customer service technology developer Genesys, sports car manufacturer Porsche and used vehicle retailer CarMax. The round was led by Tiger Global Management at a $1.6bn post-money valuation and it included JP Morgan, Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners and Andreessen Horowitz.

Telecommunications and internet group Softbank’s Vision Fund 2 led a $40m series B round for Kenya-headquartered agricultural data provider Apollo Agriculture, TechCrunch reported today. Pharmaceutical and chemicals producer Bayer’s Leaps by Bayer unit also invested, as did Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Yara Growth Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, CDC and existing backers including financial services provider SBI, Anthemis Exponential Ventures, Flourish Ventures, Breyer Capital and TO Ventures Food.

Egypt-based mobile financial services provider Lucky received $25m in series A funding from payment technology provider PayU. The round was led by Nclude, a VC fund co-founded by financial services firms Banque Misr, National Bank of Egypt and Banque du Caire, and also backed by Endeavor Catalyst, Venture Souq, Oman Technology Fund, Arzan Capital, Lorax Capital Partners and Disruptech.

CoinRoutes, the US-headquartered owner of an algorithmic trading platform for digital assets, closed a $16m series B round on Friday backed by cryptocurrency exchanges GSR and AscendEX, quantitative trading firm Susquehanna International Group, blockchain lending platform developer Celsius, proprietary trading firm Capital Markets Trading’s CMT Digital unit and digital currency prime broker Genesis. The round was led by Ayon Capital and included Cboe Global Markets, Galaxy Digital, Arca and Mirana Ventures.

US-based blockchain gaming platform developer Joyride Games secured $14m in financing on Friday from investors including blockchain game developers Animoca Brands and Dapper Labs, digital entertainment provider Modern Times Group, Coinbase Ventures and Solana Ventures, which invested on behalf of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and blockchain technology provider Solana respectively. They were joined in the round by Bitkraft, SuperLayer and Mirana Ventures.

Telecoms firm Orange has co-led a $12m series A round for France-based textual analysis software developer YZR through corporate venturing unit Orange Ventures, Tech.eu reported on Friday. The round was co-led by venture capital firm Nauta Capital and also featured 50 Partners.

Singapore-based business lending platform developer Nium has added $5m from Moore Strategic Ventures to a series D-plus round now totalling $8m, DealStreetAsia reported today, citing a regulatory filing. NewView Capital bought an amount of shares likely to be $25m from e-commerce holding company Rocket Internet, Global Founders Capital and Nium co-founder and chief executive Prajit Nanu at a $1.9bn valuation.

Gensyn, a UK-based developer of artificial intelligence training tools, has received $6.5m in seed capital from investors including data management software provider Hypersphere, TechCrunch reported today. Eden Block led the round, which was also backed by Galaxy Digital, Maven 11, Coinfund, Zee Prime and unnamed individuals.

Kenya-headquartered e-commerce connector Powered by People has raised $5m in a seed round featuring Flexport Ventures, the strategic investment arm of freight forwarder Flexport, TechCrunch reported today. VC firm Susa Ventures and VC fund Golden Ventures co-led the round, which was also backed by J Ventures and various angel investors.

US-based non-fungible token marketplace Formfunction has secured $4.7m in seed funding from investors including blockchain technology provider Solana’s corporate VC vehicle, Solana Ventures, and OpenSea Ventures, the VC arm of digital collectibles marketplace OpenSea. Crypto-focused VC fund Variant Fund led the round, which also featured Canonical Crypto, Pear VC, Palm Tree Crew Crypto, Davinci DAO and private investors Francesco Agosti, SolBuckets and Dylan and Ian Macalinao.

Indonesia-based battery swapping network Swap Energy completed a pre-series A round of undisclosed size on Friday featuring Living Lab Ventures, an affiliate of conglomerate Sinar Mas, as well as coal trading group Baramulti and electric bike manufacturer Yifang. The round was led by Kejora-SBI Orbit, a joint venture between financial services provider SBI and VC firm Kejora, and included New Energy Nexus Indonesia, Raksasa Capital and unnamed corporate and angel investors.

Retail chain Brunschwig Group has led a CHF2.5m ($2.7m) funding round for Switzerland-based luxury electric bike brand Miloo. The round, the first to be closed by the startup, also featured undisclosed angel investors.

Canada-based real estate analytics provider HonestDoor has raised C$2.2m ($1.6m) from investors including marketing data provider Wheaton Group, BetaKit has reported. Second Century Ventures, the VC fund backed by National Association of Realtors, took part in the round through its Reach Canada accelerator, alongside Luge Capital, Bluesky Equities, Conconi Growth Partners, Panache Ventures, SAF Group, Startup TNT and angel investors Sanders Lee, Ashif Mawji and Blaine LaBonte.

 

Funds

China-based venture capital firm Triniti Capital has closed its third renminbi-denominated fund at RMB1bn ($157m) with backing from a fund-of-funds partnership formed by online lending platform developer CreditEase and VC firm IDG Capital, DealStreetAsia reported on Friday. Its limited partners include Oriza FOFs Investment Management, a joint venture for Oriza Holdings and China Development Bank.

Payment technology provider Egyptian Banks Company and financial services firms Banque Misr, National Bank of Egypt and Banque du Caire are among the co-founders of a financial technology fund called Nclude. The $85m fund was formed with VC firm Global Ventures and anchored by Banque Misr and included eFinance Investment Group.

By Robert Lavine

Robert Lavine is special features editor for Global Venturing.