Funding
Environmental and societal technology provider Helena co-led an $18m series A round on Wednesday for Aether Diamonds, a US-based company looking to form diamonds using carbon taken from the air. The round was co-led with investment holding company Trirec and included venture capital firm Sound Ventures’ SoundWaves fund in addition to Khosla Ventures and Social Impact Capital, and it boosted Aether’s overall funding to $21m.
Lynx, the US-based creator of a healthcare payment, banking and e-commerce software platform, came out of stealth yesterday with $17.5m in overall funding from investors including Winter Street Ventures, the corporate VC arm of healthcare provider Commonwealth Care Alliance. The company said it had raised $2.5m in seed funding and $15m in a series A round co-led by Obvious Ventures and .406 Ventures that included Frist Cressey Ventures. It named Winter Street as an additional investor along with Shields Capital and Huntington Avenue Ventures.
Fieldguide, a US-based provider of automation and collaboration software designed to help auditors and advisory firms conduct risk assessments, secured $17m in series A funding on Wednesday from investors including trade body the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants and its accounting services and software subsidiary, CPA.com. VC firm 8VC led the round at a $100m valuation, and it also featured Floodgate and unnamed individuals.
Enterprise software provider Salesforce co-led a $16m seed round for Faros AI, a US-based developer of operations technology for software engineering, through subsidiary Salesforce Ventures on Wednesday. The round was co-led by SignalFire and Global Founders Capital with additional backing from angel investors Maynard Webb, Frederic Kerrest and Adam Gross.
Thinktech, a China-based producer of chips designed for use in connected vehicle systems, has received in excess of RMB100m ($15.8m) million in financing from investors including SAIC Capital, the corporate venturing representative of carmaker SAIC, China Money Network reported yesterday. FG Venture and Volcanics Venture also contributed to the round along with undisclosed others.
Praxis, a US-headquartered startup planning to build ‘a new kind of city’, secured $15m yesterday in a series A round featuring quantitative crypto trading firm Alameda Research. The round was led by Paradigm and also backed by Apollo Projects, Three Arrows Capital, Robot Ventures and unnamed existing investors.
CancerIQ, a US-based developer of early-stage cancer diagnostics technology, completed a $14m series B round yesterday co-led by Merck & Co’s Global Health Innovation Fund and fellow pharmaceutical firm Amgen’s investment arm, Amgen Ventures. They were joined by McKesson Ventures and OSF Ventures, representing pharmaceuticals distributor McKesson and health system OSF HealthCare respectively, in addition to existing backer HealthX Ventures.
US-headquartered clean hydrogen technology startup H2U Technologies raised $11m on Wednesday in a series A round featuring oil and gas supplier Hess Corporation. New energy investment firm Jericho Energy Ventures led the round, which included Freeflow Ventures and VoLo Earth Ventures.
India-based adult education provider InterviewBit has received $10m in series B1 funding from investors including e-commerce holding company Rocket Internet, DealStreetAsia reported yesterday, citing regulatory filings. Private equity partnership Lightrock India led the round, which was also backed by Sequoia Capital India, Global Founders Capital and Tiger Global Management. The company had raised $45m from the same investors in its December 2021 series B round.
Ignite Tournaments, a provider of play-to-earn gaming software, disclosed a total of $10m in funding yesterday, including a $7m series A round closed last month and co-led by blockchain entertainment app developer Animoca Brands with Infinity Ventures Crypto and Moon Holdings Fund. It was announced in tandem with a $3m seed round co-led by Yield Guild Games and Ascensive Assets in December 2021 with backing from Mechanism Capital, Arca Funds, Skyvision Capital and undisclosed funds and individuals.
UK-based transport payment software provider Masabi raised an undisclosed amount of funding from investors including oil and gas supplier Shell yesterday. The round was led by Accel-KKR, the private equity partnership between VC firm Accel and investment firm KKR, and was also backed by Smedvig Capital.
Nested, the France-headquartered developer of a decentralised social trading service for financial non-fungible tokens (NFTs), secured $7.5m on Wednesday in a series A round featuring trading firm Capital Markets Trading’s CMT Digital subsidiary. The round was led by private investor Alan Howard and included Republic Capital, Kenetic Capital, undisclosed investment firms and angel investors including Joseph Eagan, Lily Liu and Julien Bouteloup.
Cryptocurrency miner ViaBTC and information storage network developer Arweave took part in France-based NFT marketplace Pianity’s $6.5m seed round on Wednesday. Digital Renaissance Foundation, Big Brain Holdings and Longhash Ventures co-led the round, which was also backed by IOSG Ventures, LD Capital, ArkStream Capital and angel investors Sebastien Borget and Ronny Shibley.
Go-Ventures, the VC firm anchored by ride hailing and e-commerce group GoTo, led a $6m pre-series A round for Indonesia-based agricultural product marketplace Agriaku yesterday. The round included MDI Arise and MDI Centauri – the respective partnerships formed by telecoms firm Telkom Indonesia with VC firm Finch Capital and financial holding company KB Financial Group – as well as Mercy Corps Social Venture Fund and undisclosed individuals.
BastionZero, a US-headquartered developer of cybersecurity software focusing on remote access to infrastructure, secured $6m on Wednesday in a seed round led by computing technology producer Dell through corporate venturing unit Dell Technologies Capital. The round also featured cloud services provider Akamai as well as internet company Digital Garage’s DG Lab Fund.
Knapsack, the US-based creator of a design system for enterprise software, received $5.5m on Wednesday in a funding round led by internet technology provider Google’s artificial intelligence fund, Gradient Ventures. It was joined by enterprise messaging app developer Slack’s investment vehicle, Slack Fund, in addition to Parade Ventures, Crosslink Capital and Founder Collective.
Bonnet, a UK-based provider of electric vehicle charging data, raised $5.5m yesterday from investors including GV, the subsidiary of internet and technology group Alphabet formerly known as Google Ventures. The corporate participated alongside Lightspeed Venture Partners, 20VC and angel investors Jon McNeill, Lawrence Leuschner, Will Shu, Joe Falter and Navid Hadzaad.
US-headquartered NFT gaming platform developer Nifty League completed a $5m seed round on Wednesday featuring esports team owner Evos Gaming and blockchain game studio Nyan Heroes. Private investment firm RSE led the round, which also featured Spartan Group, Lerer Hippeau, VaynerFund, Private Ventures Group, Advancit W3, Avocado Guild, Teoh Capital, 3SE Holdings, Y2Z Ventures and angel investors Matthew Kalish and Ryan Harwood.
US-headquartered NFT entertainment product developer Turnt Gaming received $4.3m in funding yesterday from investors including blockchain developer Polygon’s gaming and NFT subsidiary, Polygon Studios. The round also featured VC firm Shima Capital.
Bridgestone Americas, a subsidiary of tyre manufacturer Bridgestone, supplied an undisclosed amount of funding yesterday for Tyrata, a US-based tyre monitoring software developer spun out of Duke University. The company had secured $4.5m in a 2018 series A round led by tyre retail services provider Dealer Tire before adding $2.9m from unnamed investors in October 2020.
Juli, the US-based creator of a digital health product focusing on the management of chronic health conditions, raised $3.8m in seed capital yesterday from investors including telecoms and internet group SoftBank’s Vision Fund, which participated in the round through its Emerge Program. VC firm Speedinvest led the round, with Norrsken VC and Dieter von Holtzbrinck Ventures also participating.
ApeX, the developer of a decentralized protocol that helps users set up perpetual swap markets for token pairs, completed a seed round of undisclosed size yesterday featuring cryptocurrency trading firm Jump Trading, crypto asset software provider CyberX and crypto trading software developer Kronos Research. They were joined by Dragonfly Capital Partners, Tiger Global Management, Mirana Ventures and M77 Ventures.
Inter-blockchain communication technology startup Polymer Labs emerged from stealth on Wednesday with $3.6 million in seed financing from investors including application software developer Tendermint, crypto market maker Wintermute and blockchain developer Signum as well as digital currency exchange Coinbase’s VC arm, Coinbase Ventures, and UOB Venture Management, on behalf of financial services firm United Overseas Bank. The round was co-led by Distributed Global and North Island Ventures and also backed by Digital Currency Group, Advanced Blockchain, The LAO, Taureon, Longhash Ventures and more than 36 individuals.
Blockchain infrastructure provider Blockdaemon supplied an undisclosed amount of funding on Wednesday for StakeWise, the US-based creator of a liquid staking protocol for the Ethereum cryptocurrency network. The corporate invested alongside crypto-focused VC fund Boldstart Ventures and will partner StakeWise on product development.
AdaSwap, an Israel-headquartered startup working on decentralised finance protocols for the Cardano blockchain network, received $2.6m in funding from investors including blockchain protocol developer Coti, cryptocurrency trading firm Efficient Frontier and crypto technology provider Pluto Digital on Wednesday. The round was led by iAngels and also featured Shima Capital, GBV Capital, Stardust Capital, Finova Capital, Banter Capital and angel investors including actress Gal Gadot and film producer Jaron Varsano.
Electronics manufacturer TDK provided an undisclosed amount of funding for Divirod, the US-headquartered operator of an environmental water-data network, through strategic investment vehicle TDK Ventures on Wednesday. Divirod had previously received $1m in a February 2021 round co-led by water utility Global Omnium’s GoHub Ventures subsidiary and Thin Line Capital Fund I.
India-headquartered human resources software developer Zimyo received Rs 170m ($2.2m) in funding from business-to-business e-commerce marketplace IndiaMart yesterday. The round came 18 months after Beenext led Zimyo’s $1.5m seed round, investing with Yatra Angel Network, AngelList and individuals including Abhishant Pant and Navin Surya.
India-based healthy snack brand Eat Better Ventures secured Rs 55m ($730,000) on Wednesday from investors including Shiprocket Ventures, a corporate venturing vehicle for logistics software provider Shiprocket. The round was co-led by Java Capital and Mumbai Angels, and it also featured Capier Investments, Plan B Capital and individuals including Harpreet Grover, Arjun Vaidya, Bhavik Vasa, Radhika Ghai, Vishesh Khurana, Bimal Kartheek Rebba, Ishank Joshi, Venus Dhuria and Divij Bajaj.
Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, the VC arm of banking firm Mitsubishi UFJ, disclosed today it invested in Japan-based real estate evaluation and transaction service Iqra alongside corporate venturing unit Zenrin Future Partners yesterday. Another financial services firm, Chugoku Bank, revealed its Chugin Infinity Fund was part of Japan-based healthy food delivery service Kompeito’s $11.2m series C round, also announced yesterday.
Funds
Real estate developer City Developments provided an undisclosed amount of capital for venture capital firm Taronga Ventures’ RealTech Ventures Fund on Wednesday. The vehicle has been established to invest in built environment technology, and its limited partners include insurance and financial services group Prudential’s PGIM Real Estate subsidiary, real estate investor Ivanhoé Cambridge and pension fund Stichting Pensioenfonds’ APG investment vehicle.
Marketing software producer Fastbase paid an undisclosed amount yesterday for a 24.5% stake in Etheralabs, the US-based operator of a venture lab and ecosystem concentrated on blockchain technology. The deal was announced two days after business information provider Wikisoft acquired a 51% stake in the accelerator.
Additional reporting by Liwen-Edison Fu and Thierry Heles. Photo courtesy of Aether Diamonds.
