Funding
Consumer
Btomorrow Ventures, a corporate venturing arm of cigarette producer British American Tobacco, has led a $4.5m series A round for ParallelDots, an India-based developer of artificial intelligence technology for consumer packaged goods retailers, Business Standard reported today. Multipoint Capital also took part in the round.
Computing
CIBC Innovation Banking, a vehicle for financial services firm Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, and Kayne Partners co-led an $80m series B round for Panzura, a US-based cloud data management platform operator.
Fintech and cryptocurrency
Financial services group Barclays and proprietary trading firm Flow Traders participated in a $70m series A round today for Elwood Technologies, a UK-based provider of an institutional investor-focused digital asset market entry platform. Goldman Sachs and Dawn Capital co-led the round, investing alongside BlockFi Ventures, Chimera Ventures, CommerzVentures, Digital Currency Group and Galaxy Digital Ventures.
Cryptocurrency exchanges Alameda Research, Coinbase and Gemini (the latter two through their respective subsidiaries: Coinbase Ventures and Gemini Frontier Fund) took part in a $30m in series A round today for Jambo, a Democratic Republic of the Congo-based, Africa-focused web3 app provider Jambo. Paradigm led the round, which included ParaFi Capital, Pantera Capital, Delphi Ventures, Kingsway Capital, BH Digital, Graticule Asset Management Asia, Shima Capital, Morningstar Ventures and Tiger Global.
Blockchain-fuelled contract platform Astar joined Coinbase Ventures and Jump Crypto, respective subsidiaries of crypto exchange Coinbase and proprietary trading firm Jump Trading, as well as Acala, a DeFi hub of Polkadot, to back a $10m seed round for Satori, the US-based owner of a Polkadot-focused decentralised derivatives platform. Polychain Capital and Blockchange Ventures co-led the round, participating together with Gavin Wood, Portal, Parallel and Clover.
Healthcare
Pharmaceutical firm Dexcel Pharma took part in a $270m series C round today for Kriya Therapeutics, a US-based gene therapeutics developer. Patient Square Capital led the round, which included Bluebird Ventures, CAM Capital, Foresite Capital, JDRF T1D Fund, Lightswitch Capital, Narya Capital, QVT, Transhuman Capital and undisclosed backers.
Logistics and mobility
Telecommunications firm Verizon (through its Verizon Ventures unit) and internet and gaming technology group Tencent took part in a $100m series B round today for Israel-based public mobility operation management software provider Optibus. The deal valued the company at $1.3bn post-money and included Insight Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Pitango and SOMV Momentum.
Freight forwarder Flexport has led Nigeria-based, Africa-focused shipping platform operator Topship’s $2.5m seed round, TechCrunch reported today. The deal emerged a few months after the company graduated from Y Combinator’s winter batch, and other participants in the round included Y Combinator, Soma Capital, Starling Ventures, Olive Tree Capital, Capital X and True Capital as well as angel investors Immad Akhund and Arash Ferdowsi.
Real Estate
Norinchukin Innovation Fund and Kiraboshi Capital, respective vehicles for financial services firms Norinchukin Bank and Tokyo Kiraboshi Financial Group, joined Mercuria BizTech, a multicorporate-backed joint venture between trading group Itochu and investment firm Mercuria Investment, as well as Carta Ventures, part of equity management software producer Carta, to back a ¥1.2bn ($9.3m) series B round for Sumutasu, the Japan-based owner of property sale platform iBuy. World of Innovation Lab, Mobile Internet Capital and unnamed private investors filled out the participants in the round, which included ¥200m in debt supplied by Japan Finance Corporation. The company’s total funding now stands at about $15.5m.
Fund
Japan-headquartered cosmetics producer Shiseido has launched a China-based RMB501m ($73.8m) venture capital vehicle dubbed Ziyue Fund, iQingyan reported last week. The corporate first announced the initiative in August last year, having partnered local private equity firm Boyu Capital Investment Management. The news came shortly after another beauty product maker, L’Oréal, formed an investment company in China.
M&A
Food and grocery ordering service Swiggy has agreed to pay an undisclosed amount to buy Dineout, an India-based eating out platform provider part of Times Internet, the internet services arm of media company Times Group, Inc42 reported on Friday. A source privy to the matter told TechCrunch Dineout will be valued at $200m after the all-equity deal.
Recruitment technology provider Cornerstone OnDemand completed its acquisition of EdCast, a US-based employee training platform provider backed by corporate VCs: REV Venture Partners, SoftBank, Penta Global, General Electric and National Grid Partners. The purchase was agreed in March this year for an undisclosed amount.
