Funding
Viome Life Sciences, a US-based provider of consumer health tests, secured $54m on Wednesday in a pre-series C convertible note round that included consumer food producer Glico and healthcare provider Physician Partners. They joined Khosla Ventures, West River Group, Ocgrow Ventures and Bold Capital Group in the round, which took Viome’s overall funding to over $125m, it said. The company closed a $56m series B round featuring Physician Partners, Bold Capital, Hambrecht Healthcare Growth Venture Fund and private investors Marc Benioff and Matthew Harris in November 2019. Physician Partners had invested $5m in Viome the previous year.
Property developer Mitsui Fudosan’s 31Ventures unit contributed to a $50m series C round today for CompStak, a US-headquartered provider of data covering commercial real estate deals. The round was led by funds managed by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital and also featured real estate development and investment firm Crow Holdings and existing investors including Canaan Partners and IA Capital. CompStak had raised a total of $28m as of its $12m series B round in 2019, from investors including corporates RealPage, Moody’s Corporation and DMGT.
Financial services firm Santander and investment manager Blackstone provided $50m for Ample, the US-based developer of a modular battery swapping service for electric vehicles, on Wednesday. Ample raised $31m in series A funding in 2018 from petroleum suppliers Shell and Repsol – through Shell Ventures and Repsol Energy Ventures – as well as Hemi Ventures, Trirec and Moore Strategic Ventures. It closed $34.7m in funding from unnamed investors in April this year and added $160m from oil and gas providers PTT and Eneos, public transport operator SMRT, Moore Strategic Ventures and Disruptive Innovation Fund in August, SMRT and Eneos reportedly as existing backers.
UK-based personalised marketing software developer Ometria raised $40m in series C funding yesterday from investors including Sonae IM, a corporate venturing subsidiary of conglomerate Sonae. The round was led by InfraVia Growth and also backed by Octopus Ventures, Summit Action and Adjuvo, all three of which joined Sonae IM, Samos Investments and various private investors in a $21m series B round in 2019 that increased the company’s overall funding to $32m.
Daily, a US-headquartered provider of web communications development software, received $40m on Wednesday in a series B round featuring conglomerate Heritage Group and messaging software developer Slack, which invested through its Slack Fund. Renegade Partners led the round, which included Cendana Capital, Tiger Global Management, Freestyle Ventures, Root VC, Moxxie, Haystack Ventures, Todd & Rahul’s Angel Fund and various individuals. It followed $15m from Tiger Global, private investor Lachy Bloom and unnamed existing backers in a March 2021 series A round, which was preceded by $4.6m from investors including Slack Fund in May 2020, taking Daily’s total funding to $7.1m.
Sandbox VR, the US-based operator of a chain of virtual reality gaming centres, has secured $37m in funding from investors including e-commerce group Alibaba, VentureBeat reported on Wednesday. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, also featured fellow venture capital firm Craft Ventures and increased the company’s overall funding to $105m. Alibaba and Andreessen Horowitz had joined Stanford University, Floodgate, CRCM Ventures and TriplePoint Capital to supply $68m in series A funding in January 2019 and returned for an $11m bridge round nine months later.
Internet and technology group Alphabet’s GV subsidiary led a $30m series B round for Infinitus Systems, a US-based provider of phone call automation technology for the healthcare space, on Wednesday. GV managing partner Krishna Yeshwant is joining the company’s board of directors in connection with the round, which included Kleiner Perkins and Coatue Management. Both had taken part in its $21.4m series A round in February this year alongside another Alphabet fund, Gradient Ventures, as well as Quiet Capital, Firebolt Ventures, Tau Ventures and various individuals.
Intuitive Ventures, the strategic investment arm of medical technology producer Intuitive, helped US-based biomedical data software developer Flywheel expand its series C round to $27.5m on Wednesday. The $22m first close was led by 8VC in September this year and it included pharmaceutical firm Novartis’s dRx Capital vehicle enterprise technology provider Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s HPE Pathfinder unit, iSelect, Argonautic Ventures, Beringea, Spike Ventures, Key Investments, Seraph and Great North Labs. Both corporates also backed Flywheel’s $15m series B round in February 2021.
US-based intelligent radiology technology developer Rad AI completed a $25m series A round on Wednesday featuring internet technology provider Google’s Gradient Ventures fund. VC firm Artis Ventures led the round, which also featured OCV Partners and Kickstart Fund. The company had received $4m in a late 2019 seed round led by Gradient Ventures and backed by GMO Venture Partners, on behalf of internet company GMO, in addition to UP2398, Precursor Ventures, Array Ventures, Hike Ventures, Fifty Years VC and unnamed individuals. It named OCV Partners and Kickstart Fund as existing investors this week.
Blackshark.ai, the US-headquartered creator of a semantic 3D model of Earth, raised $20m on Wednesday in a funding round co-led by software producer Microsoft’s corporate venturing unit, M12. VC firm Point72 Ventures co-led the round, which included angel investor Markus Wagner, who was described as an existing backer. The startup’s technology was used in Microsoft’s Flight Simulator program in 2020.
Industrial technology and appliance producer Siemens’ Next47 vehicle co-led a $20m series A round for Blink, the US-based creator of an enterprise mobile app designed for frontline workers, at a $100m valuation on Wednesday. Existing investors Partech and TechStars also contributed to the round, the former having led a $10m round that included undisclosed angel investors and which was announced when Blink publicly launched in May 2020.
Telecoms and internet group SoftBank’s Opportunity Fund took part in an $18m series A round on Wednesday for Lendtable, a US-based startup which advances cash to employees so they can participate in their employers’ retirement financing schemes. The round was led by 01 Advisors and included Streamlined Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, Dragon Capital and assorted private investors. It said it has now raised $24m in total, including a $3m seed round in October 2020 backed by SoftBank, Valor Equity Partners, Streamlined Ventures, Partech Ventures, Valia Ventures, Socii Capital, Y Combinator, Green Visor Capital and undisclosed individuals.
Signos, the creator of a mobile app that uses blood glucose data to give personalised weight loss advice, has secured $13m in a series A round led by GV, the corporate venturing subsidiary of internet and technology group Alphabet, TechCrunch reported on Tuesday. Courtside Ventures had led a $4m seed round in January this year that also featured 1984 Ventures and Tau Ventures, Signos co-founder and CEO Sharam Fouladgar-Mercer told TechCrunch.
Thailand-headquartered blockchain game technology stratup GuildFi closed a $6m seed round yesterday backed by quantitative trading firm Alameda Research, blockchain app publisher Animoca Brands, blockchain game developer Dapper Labs and Coinbase Ventures, the investment arm of digital currency exchange Coinbase. The round was co-led by DeFiance Capital and Hashed and included Pantera Capital, Play Ventures, Coin98 Ventures and SkyVision Capital.
Knowify, a US-based developer of business management software for construction firms, completed a $5.45m series A round yesterday co-led by MassMutual Ventures, the strategic investment subsidiary of insurance firm Massachusetts Mutual Life. VC firm Companyon Ventures co-led the round, which included Dreamit Ventures and all the company’s existing backers. It has not revealed details of earlier funding but CEAS Investments is an existing shareholder.
Telecoms firm KDDI’s Open Innovation Fund 3 led a ¥450m ($4m) ‘seed B’ round for Japan-based 3D communication tool developer PocketRD today. Publisher Kodansha, printing services provider Dai Nippon and financial services firm Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation’s SMBC Venture Capital subsidiary also took part in the round.
Aracan, the Japan-based operator of Car ByeBuy, a used vehicle marketplace also known as Kababa, raised an undisclosed amount today from broadcaster Nagoya TV and Z Holdings, the entity formed by internet groups Naver and Yahoo Japan. They participated in the round through Nagoya TV Ventures and Z Venture Capital respectively.
M&A
Video streaming platform developer Vimeo is set to acquire Wibbitz, an Israel-headquartered video creation software developer backed by mobile health technology developer NantMobile and media companies Bertelsmann, The Weather Channel, TF1 Group and Associated Press to exit. All the corporates had backed a $20m series C round in 2017 alongside Horizon Ventures and Lool Ventures, boosting Wibbitz’s overall funding to $30.8m.
Doctor Anywhere has paid an undisclosed amount to purchase Thailand-based telemedicine software platform developer Doctor Raksa, allowing healthcare provider Bumrungrad Hospital to exit, The Business Times reported yesterday. Bumrungrad had paid $3m for a 30% stake in the company in 2018.
Additional reporting by Liwen-Edison Fu.
