Funding
Belgium-headquartered blockchain and cryptocurrency services provider Venly has secured $23m from investors including digital currency exchange Coinbase’s corporate venturing unit, Coinbase Ventures. The round was led by Courtside Ventures and also featured Transcend Fund, Tioga Capital, High-Tech Gründerfonds, Fortino Capital, Plug and Play, Leadblock Partners, Imec Istart, Powerhouse Ventures and Alpaca VC.
US-based genome analysis technology developer Genome Insight raised $23m on Saturday in a series B round that included digital transformation services provider VNTG Corporation. The round was led by Dunamu & Partners and also backed by InterVest, Signite Partners, KC Investments Group, DSC Investment, Paratus Investment and Schmidt.
Digital payment processor PayPal contributed to a $21m funding round for Concerto, a US-based provider of credit card partnership schemes, through corporate venturing unit PayPal Ventures yesterday. The round was led by Matrix Partners and also backed by GoldenTree Asset Management.
Switzerland-based T-cell receptor therapeutics developer Engimmune Therapeutics closed a $16.7m seed round co-led by pharmaceutical firm Novo today. The round was co-led with Pureos Bioventures and it came after Enginmmune was spun out of ETH Zurich and incubated by BaseLaunch.
Fashion retailer Boozt has paid an undisclosed amount for a 30% stake in Denmark-based digital commerce software provider Liveshopper. The latter said in a press release Boozt provided a ‘double-digit million’ amount without specifying the currency in which it invested.
Brazil-headquartered esports organisation Loud launched a decentralised autonomous organisation called Snackclub on Friday that will operate as an investor hub for the Web3 sector, with $9m from external investors including blockchain game developer Animoca Brands and Jump Crypto, a subsidiary of proprietary trading firm Jump Capital. The round was led by Mechanism Capital and also featured Ascensive Assets, Formless Capital, OP Crypto, ROK Capital and Shima Capital.
Proprietary cryptocurrency trading firm Dexterity Capital and VC fund Hack VC have co-led an $8.5m seed round for Vertex Protocol, the Singapore-based creator of a decentralised protocol for spot and derivatives trading across multiple currencies. They were joined by cryptocurrency exchange Huobi and trading firms GSR, Hudson River Trading and Jane Street in addition to Collab+Currency, JST Capital, Big Brain Holdings and Lunatic Capital.
Oil and gas supplier Enbridge provided $6.6m in funding yesterday for Smartpipe Technologies, the US-based developer of a non-metallic pipeline system for fossil fuels. It came five years after Notion Capital led an $18.8m series A round that included communications equipment maker Comba Telecom, Finance Wales, Delta Partners, Wren Capital and unnamed others.
OwnID, the Israel-based developer of a password-free authentication software tool, has emerged from stealth with $6.2m in seed funding from investors including enterprise software producer SAP. The round was led by VC firm Mayfield.
GamerGains, the US-headquartered creator of a cryptocurrency-based pay-and-earn platform, has raised $5.8m in a seed round featuring cryptocurrency exchanges BlockFi and FTX, the latter through its FTX Ventures subsidiary. VC fund Cadenza Ventures led the round, which was also backed by Tiger Global Management, Winklevoss Capital, Alumni Ventures Group, CMS Holdings, Third Prime, Global Founders Capital and Lightbank.
South Korea-based 3D modelling software developer Recon Labs has secured $4.4m in a series A round featuring Hanwha Techwin – the video surveillance division of conglomerate Hanwha – as well as internet groups Naver (through its Naver D2SF unit) and Kakao (through subsidiaries Kakao Ventures and Kakao Brain). The corporates invested alongside Shinhan Capital, Lotte Ventures and Korea Investment Partners.
Arkyn, the Denmark-based developer of a mobile app which assists users of SAP’s enterprise software suite, has received €3.8m ($4m) in funding from investors including Trifork Labs. The corporate was joined in the round by Arkyn’s co-founders and members of its management team along with unnamed other individuals.
Proprietary trading firm Jump Trading has led a $3.1m seed round for Streamflow, the Serbia-based creator of a digital token distribution platform, through subsidiary Jump Crypto. The round included cryptocurrency exchanges MEXC and Huobi as well as blockchain technology provider Solana, through MEXC Labs, Huobi Ventures and Solana Ventures, in addition to stablecoin minting platform developer Ratio Finance, GBV Capital, Paribus Ventures, Hypersphere, IVC, Genblock Capital, AngelDAO, T3E, Amber Group and Solidity Ventures.
Australia-headquartered solar power software developer Okra Solar has raised $2.1m in seed funding from investors including Schneider Electric Energy Access and Autodesk Foundation, vehicles for energy management technology producer Schneider Electric and design software provider Autodesk, TechCrunch reported yesterday. The round was co-led by Explorer Investments and Didendum.
M&A
Mass media group Comcast and human resources software developer Cornerstone on Demand exited Comparably, the US-headquartered operator of an online employee review platform, through an acquisition of undisclosed size by market intelligence software provider ZoomInfo yesterday. Cornerstone on Demand and Comcast unit Comcast Ventures joined Crosslink Capital, Upfront Ventures, Lowercase Capital, Alpha Edison, Accelerator Ventures and Rincon Venture Partners in a $7.3m round in 2017 that took the company’s total funding past $13m.
Savioke, a US-based service robot developer backed by medical product delivery service Swisslog Healthcare, robotics software producer Brain Corp, electronics manufacturer NEC and human resources firm Recruit, has been acquired by a newly formed company called Relay Robotics that has been capitalised with $10m from undisclosed investors through a series A round closed yesterday. All four corporates took part in a $13.4m series B round for the company in 2018 that lifted its overall funding to $31m.
Funds
Metallurgical trading firm Shanghai Rui Ye Lian Industrial has contributed to a fund for China-headquartered investment platform Cedarlake Capital sized at RMB1.25bn ($189m), DealStreetAsia reported on Friday. The fund’s limited partners also include Haihe River Industry Fund, Qianhai FoF and Phoenix Tree Capital Group.
