Funding
OpenSpace, a US-based provider of construction jobsite capture software, raised $102m yesterday in a series D round featuring property developers Fischer Homes and Sino Group as well as JLL Spark, a subsidiary of real estate services firm JLL. The round was led by investment firm PSP Partners’ PSP Growth subsidiary at an $800m pre-money valuation and included Alpaca VC, Harmonic Growth Partners, Mirae Asset, Alkeon Capital Management, GreenPoint Partners, Lux Capital, Menlo Ventures, Navitas Capital, Nine Four Ventures, Taronga Ventures and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock.
US-based immuno-oncology drug developer Rondo Therapeutics completed a $67m series A round yesterday that included pharmaceutical firms Novo and Johnson & Johnson, the latter through subsidiary Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC. The round was co-led by Red Tree Venture Capital and Canaan Partners and also backed by SV Health Investors.
Aerospace manufacturer Airbus co-led a $60m series B round for US-headquartered aerospace communication technology provider CesiumAstro through strategic investment arm Airbus Ventures yesterday. The round was co-led with Forever Ventures and included military equipment producer L3Harris Technologies, aerospace manufacturer Heico, Kleiner Perkins, Lavrock Ventures and Franklin Templeton’s Blackhorse Fund.
Sanctuary Cognitive Systems Corporation, a Canada-based developer of robotics intelligence technology, secured $58.5m yesterday in a series A round featuring telecommunications firms Verizon (through Verizon Ventures) and Bell, automotive component maker Magna, healthcare provider SE Health and enterprise software producer Workday’s investment arm, Workday Ventures. The corporates invested alongside Evok Innovations and Export Development Canada.
NCX, the US-headquartered operator of a forest carbon marketplace, received $50m in series B financing from investors including clearing house operator and mortgage technology provider Intercontinental Exchange and investment banking firm JP Morgan yesterday. Alternative investment manager Energize Ventures led the round, which also featured Dalus Capital, Clearvision Ventures, Scribble Ventures and Time Ventures.
Enterprise messaging app developer Slack took part in US-based customer management software provider Commsor’s $50m series B round yesterday through its Slack Fund. Venture capital firm Atomico anchored the round, which was also backed by 776 Capital, SignalFire, Felicis Ventures and more than 150 individuals including Holly Firestone, Erica Kuhl, Tristan Pollock, Shana Sumers, Vlad Magdalin, Gina Bianchini, Des Traynor, Zach Sims, Mariano Suarez-Battan, Darren Murph, Julie Herendeen and Casey Neistat.
Epsilogen, a UK-based developer of cancer treatments that exploit immunoglobulin E antibodies, closed a £30.8m ($41.2m) series B round yesterday led by Novartis Venture Fund, which invested on behalf of pharmaceutical firm Novartis. The round included real estate management firm Caribou Property, Epidarex Capital, Alsa Ventures, 3B Future Health Fund, British Patient Capital and Schroders Capital.
Tenderly, the US-headquartered creator of a software development platform for blockchain products, secured $40m in series B funding yesterday from investors including decentralised trading protocol developer Uniswap Labs and Coinbase Ventures, the corporate VC arm of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase. VC firm Spark Capital led the round, which also featured Accel, Point Nine Capital, Abstract Ventures, Daedalus and private investors Guillermo Rauch, Jinglan Wang, Eric Ries and Tihomir Bajic.
FreeWill, the US-based creator of an online estate planning and charitable donation management platform, received $30m in series B financing from investors including HearstLab, a subsidiary of media group Hearst, yesterday. The round was led by private equity firm Bain Capital’s Double Impact subsidiary and also backed by Iconiq Growth, QED Investors, Ulu Ventures, Highland Capital and Pear.
UK-based satellite observation technology provider Satellite Vu raised approximately £16.4m ($21.9m) in series A funding on Tuesday from investors including aerospace manufacturer Lockheed Martin. The round was led by Seraphim Space Investment Trust and also featured Contrarian Ventures and In-Q-Tel.
Proprietary trading firm Jump Trading co-led an $18m seed round for Thetanuts Finance, a US-based provider of treasury management software for decentralised finance, through subsidiary Jump Crypto on Tuesday. The round was co-led with cryptocurrency exchange Deribit, Three Arrows Capital and QCP Capital, and included digital currency exchanges MEXC and Crypto.com (through Crypto.com Capital), blockchain technology provider Algorand (through Algorand Ventures), crypto trading firm GSR, crypto market maker Wintermute, DeFi Capital, Raptor Group, Mirana Ventures, Tribe Capital, Goldentree Asset Management, Borderless Capital, Hyperchain Capital, Comma Ventures, Avocado Guild, GFC, Woo DAO, Ledgerprime, Genesis Capital and Paradigm Capital.
Vū Technologies, a US-based developer of virtual film and television production studios, completed a $17m seed round on Tuesday featuring cloud technology provider ADX Labs. The round was also backed by Topmark Partners and angel investment syndicates from the states of Florida and Texas.
Lenovo Capital, a corporate venturing subsidiary of consumer electronics manufacturer Lenovo, has participated in a RMB100m ($15.8m) series A round for China-based retail software provider Hangzhou Xingyun Digital Technology, DealStreetAsia reported yesterday. GL Ventures led the round, which also featured IDG Capital.
China-based gene therapy developer Grit Science has raised over $15m in a series A round featuring insurer Sunshine Insurance Group, DealStreetAsia reported yesterday. VC firm Sequoia Capital China led the round, which included Qingsong Fund, China Renaissance, Beijing Shengmingyuan Venture Fund, China Everbright Group and Guoshi Yingfu Investment.
Summit Nanotech Corporation, the Canada-based developer of a sustainable lithium extraction system, completed a $14m series A round featuring mining company BHP’s corporate VC unit, BHP Ventures, on Tuesday. Temasek’s Xora Innovation vehicle co-led the round with Capricorn’s Technology Impact Fund.
Kompeito, the Japan-based operator of healthy food delivery service Office de Yasai, received ¥1.3bn ($11.2m) today in a series C round co-led by insurer Nippon Life’s Nissay Capital subsidiary with Incubate Fund and JIC Venture Growth Investments. They were joined by DD Holdings Venture Capital and Kyogin Lease Capital – on behalf of restaurant operator DD Holdings and leasing services firm Kyogin Lease – as well as financial services firms Chugoku Bank, Juroku Financial Group and Tottori Bank, the last two through subsidiaries Nobunaga Capital Village and Tottori Capital. The company’s total funding now stands at just over $17m.
Media group Bertelsmann led a $10m series A round for US-based online streaming data provider Antenna Data on Tuesday through its Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments unit. It invested alongside talent representative United Talent Agency’s UTA Ventures fund, Raine Ventures, SK Ventures, Grit Capital, Hyper, Imagination Capital and Waverley Capital.
Philippines-based grocery delivery service SariSuki secured $7.1m on Tuesday from investors including Saison Capital, a subsidiary of payment services firm Credit Saison, as well as conglomerate JG Summit’s JG Digital Equity Ventures fund and quantitative trading firm Susquehanna International Group. The corporates were joined by Openspace, Global Founders Capital and Foxmont Capital Partners.
US-based Web3 development tool provider DNABlock completed a $7m second seed round on Tuesday co-led by blockchain provider Solana’s investment arm, Solana Ventures, as well as blockchain entertainment producer Animoca Brands, creative studio Non-Fungible Labs and Sfermion. The round was also backed by telecoms and internet group SoftBank’s SB Opportunity Fund, trading firm Capital Markets Trading’s CMT Digital subsidiary, law firm Fenwick and West, LD Capital, Gaingels, RareBreed Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Diverse Angels, Spacecadet Ventures, Figure 8 Investments and angel investors Haobo Zhao, Bill Silva. Kevin Lin and Mike Shinoda.
Japan Cycle League, the Japan-based operator of a professional cycle racing league, took its total funding to ¥700m ($6.1m) on Tuesday with financing from investors including logistics group Seino Holdings, toy and model manufacturer Good Smile, insurer Sumitomo Life and digital marketing group Digital Holdings, the last two through Sumisei Innovation Fund and Bonds Investment Group. The round’s participants were filled out by Hyogo Kobe Startup Fund.
Internet and telecoms group SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 supplied an undisclosed amount of funding for TabaPay, the US-based operator of an instant finance transfer service, on Tuesday. TabaPay’s website names Aligned Partners as an earlier investor.
Insurance firms American Family and Massachusetts Mutual Life co-led a $5.2m seed-2 round for Pendella Technologies, a US-based developer of software intended to remove bias from life insurance, on Wednesday through subsidiaries American Family Ventures and MassMutual Ventures. They were joined by Assurity Ventures and Aflac Ventures – on behalf of insurers Assurity Life and Aflac – as well as TASC Ventures, a vehicle for benefits administrator TASC, and SixThirty, MTech Capital and Early Light Ventures.
Internet and gaming group Tencent provided an undisclosed amount of funding for Offworld Industries, a Canada-based gaming studio focusing on first-person shooter games, on Tuesday. Gram Xu, general manager of Tencent’s Shooting Games division, is taking a board seat at Offworld through the transaction.
Saudi Arabia-based online crowdfunding platform operator Funding Souq has completed a $2.5m seed round that included Halal investment and personal finance management service IslamicFinanceGuru, Wamda reported on Tuesday. It was joined by individuals including Amal Dokhan, Omar Aljeraisi, Christian Kunz, Mazin Alzaidi and Musaab Hakami.
Tax-free shopping and refund service Global Blue invested an undisclosed sum in Twig, the UK-based creator of a payment app designed to streamline the consumer resale market, on Tuesday. The deal came two months after Twig raised $35m in a series A round led by Fasanara Capital and backed by unnamed angel investors.
Mapping technology provider Zenrin supplied an undisclosed amount of funding for Iqra, the Japan-based operator of an online platform which matches real estate agents with home sellers, on Monday. The cash was invested through corporate venturing subsidiary Zenrin Future Partners.
India-based online finance provider FincFriends received $1.1m in series B funding from digital lender Digital Finance International on Tuesday. Digital Finance International had previously invested $6m in the company in 2019.
Conglomerate Adani Group signed a binding term sheet on Tuesday to invest an undisclosed amount in online media platform Quintillion Business Media. The latter is a subsidiary of digital media group Quint Digital Media.
Lanimal, the Japan-based owner of an online service called Sewakl which matches pet owners with users who can temporarily take care of them, raised an undisclosed amount from healthcare digitalisation service HTG yesterday.
M&A
Data software producer Snowflake agreed yesterday to acquire Streamlit, a US-based data application software provider backed by internet technology provider Google and media group Bloomberg, for $800m. Streamlit’s overall funding stood at $62m as of a $35m series B round in April 2021 led by Sequoia Capital and backed by Google’s Gradient Ventures fund and GGV Capital. Its earlier investors included Bloomberg-sponsored VC firm Bloomberg Beta, Elad Gil and Daniel Gross.
Xpansiv, the operator of an online marketplace for environmental, social and governance commodities, agreed yesterday to buy APX, the US-based environmental commodity and power market technology provider formerly known as Automated Power Exchange. Bechtel Enterprises, the VC arm of construction firm Bechtel, joined Kinetic Ventures and Onset Ventures in a $15.5m round for APX in 1999.
Public Markets
Keep, a China-based fitness app developer backed by internet group Tencent, media company Bertelsmann and telecoms and internet group SoftBank, filed for an initial public offering in Hong Kong last week. All three corporates took part in a $360m series F round in January 2021 valuing Keep at $2bn, increasing its overall funding to approximately $627m in the process.
Additional reporting by Liwen-Edison Fu and Thierry Heles.
