Funding
Royal, the US-headquartered operator of a non-fungible token (NFT) issuing service for musicians, has secured $55m in a series A round featuring Coinbase Ventures, the investment arm of digital currency exchange Coinbase. VC firm Andreessen Horowitz and crypto investment firm Paradigm co-led the round, which included musical artists The Chainsmokers, Nas, Logic and Kygo. It came just two months after Paradigm and Founders Fund co-led a $16m seed round that included Atomic.
Enterprise software producer SAP took part in Germany-based neural search software startup Jina AI’s $30m series A round yesterday through its SAP.io subsidiary. The round was led by venture capital firm Canaan Partners and also featured Mango Capital, GGV Capital and Yunqi Partners, the last two having joined SAP.io in Jina’s $5.4m pre-series A round in September 2020.
Robert Bosch Venture Capital, the investment arm of industrial technology producer Robert Bosch, has provided an undisclosed amount for US-based precision medicine developer Variantyx as part of a $26m series C round. Variantyx, a spinout of Tel Aviv University, has now raised $53m altogether, $20m coming in a March 2021 series B round led by GHS Fund and backed by IBM Ventures on behalf of computing technology provider IBM in addition to Pitango Venture Capital, New Era Capital Partners and 20/20 HealthCare Partners.
US-based vegetarian casein and mozzarella producer New Culture completed a $25m series A round yesterday featuring ADM Ventures, Be8 Ventures and Evolv Ventures, which invested on behalf of food processor ADM and packaged food producers Dr Oetker and Kraft Heinz. The round was co-led by Ahren Innovation Capital and CPT Capital and included SOSV’s IndieBio fund, Bee Partners, Mayfield, Alumni Ventures Group, Bluestein Ventures, S2G Ventures and Future Ventures.
Software producer Microsoft’s M12 subsidiary has led a $22m series B round for India-based sales intelligence software developer Salesken, investing alongside VC firm Sequoia Capital India, Entrackr reported yesterday. Unitus Ventures supplied an undisclosed amount of seed capital for Salesken in 2013 before Michael and Susan Dell Foundation added $1.5m two years later. They both sold shares in the company in March 2020 when Sequoia India provided $8m in series A funding.
LoQus23 Therapeutics, a UK-based developer of small molecule drug treatments for triplet repeat diseases such as Huntington’s, emerged from stealth today having completed an £11.5m ($15.4m) seed round that included Novartis Venture Fund, a subsidiary of pharmaceutical firm Novartis. The corporate was joined in the round by Dementia Discovery Fund, which had supplied the round’s £4.5m first tranche in 2019 as LoQys23’s founding investor.
Electric motorcycle manufacturer House of Lithium agreed yesterday to supply up to $15m in funding for Canada-based counterpart Damon Motors, adding to C$6.1m ($4.8m) in securities it already held and potentially increasing its stake to over 10%. Damon had raised $1.9m from Round 13 Capital, Techstars, Extreme Venture Partners and Pallasite Ventures in a June 2019 seed round, $3m in pre-series A funding from unnamed individuals in March 2020 and over $30m in bridge financing from Benevolent Capital, SOL Global Investments, Zirmania and unnamed others a year later.
Cloud services and cybersecurity software provider Akamai Technologies has contributed to a $7.4m series A round for Shield-IoT, the Israel-based developer of an artificial intelligence-equipped security monitoring system for internet-of-things devices, VentureBeat reported yesterday. NextLeap Ventures and Bloc Ventures co-led the round, which included Atlas Venture, Springtide Ventures, Divedigital and Janvest Capital Partners. It came after energy utility Innogy’s Innovation Hub led the company’s $3.6m seed round in 2019, investing with Janvest, Danmar Capital and Minvest Partners.
Pintek, an Indonesia-based provider of education-focused financial services, has received $7m in series A funding from investors including digital media company Gree’s Strive fund, e27 reported today. Kaizenvest, Heritas Capital, Blue7, Earlsfield Capital, Finch Capital, Global Founders Capital (GFC), Accion Venture Lab and Fox Ventures also took part in the round, which followed $2m to $3m from GFC in October 2019, an undisclosed amount of seed funding from Accion Venture Lab in May 2020 and a pre-series A round of undisclosed size in December led by Finch Capital and backed by Accion and unnamed angel investors.
Continuity, a France-headquartered developer of underwriting software for the insurance industry, has secured €5m ($5.6) in seed capital from investors including Kamet Ventures, the VC firm and company builder formed by insurance firm Axa, Tech.eu reported today. The round also featured VC firm Elaia Partners and state-owned development bank BPIfrance.
Insurance provider MCIS Insurance has paid an undisclosed amount for a 5% stake in Malaysia-based digital payment services provider Merchantrade Asia. The company had received undisclosed amounts from diversified conglomerate Sumitomo in 2009 and mobile network operator Celcom Axiata in 2014 before the latter invested $4.5m three years later to acquire a 20% stake. Investment banking firm Kenanga had provided an undisclosed amount in October 2020 in return for a 5% stake.
China-headquartered esports and lifestyle brand Talon completed a $5m series A round yesterday led by blockchain game and entertainment app developer Animoca Brands. It was joined by financial services firm Hana’s Digital Transformation Fund, consumer brand distributor AK Partners, decentralised finance provider Yieldly, HZL Capital, Token Bay Capital, Foxmont Capital Partners, Arete Capital Asia, BlackPine and PAC Capital. The company has not revealed details of earlier funding but said Animoca had previously been part of its 2018 seed round.
The Blockchain Association, a US-headquartered lobbying group for the cryptocurrency industry, has received $4m in funding from backers including digital currency exchange Kraken, which supplied $1m, CoinDesk has reported. Crypto-focused VC firm Digital Currency Group also provided $1m while Filecoin Foundation, which oversees digital crypto payment system Filecoin, committed $2m and has pledged a further $2m at a later date.
Ireland-based endoscopy surgery technology developer Tympany Medical has secured €3.5m ($3.9m) in seed funding from investors including Mayo Clinic Ventures, the corporate venturing vehicle for medical care and research provider Mayo Clinic, the Irish Times reported yesterday. The round was led by Atlantic Bridge University Bridge Fund and also backed by Ascentifi, Western Development Commission, Enterprise Ireland, Xenium Capital and undisclosed angel investors. It came after Tympany had been spun out of National University of Ireland, Galway.
Consumer electronics manufacturer Sony’s Innovation Fund and Insignia Ventures Partners have added $1m to a pre-series A round for Japan-based challenger bank Nudge that was co-led by Spiral Capital and Headline Asia and backed by Genesia Ventures and company founder Takashi Okita, bringing it to $3m. The $2m first close was disclosed last month and increased its overall funding to $10m. Its earlier investors include printing services firm Toppan, DG Ventures and Saison Ventures, subsidiaries for internet company Digital Garage and payment services provider Credit Saison.
CyberAgent Capital, the corporate venturing subsidiary of internet company CyberAgent, has supplied an undisclosed amount of funding for Recruitery, the Vietnam-headquartered operator of an online recruitment referral platform, Tech in Asia reported yesterday. The deal came after the company raised $50,000 from VC firm Insignia Ventures Partners in September 2019.
M&A
Healthcare management software producer Edifecs agreed yesterday to purchase Health Fidelity, a US-based developer of risk adjustment software for use in health insurance, in a transaction of undisclosed size that will allow healthcare system UPMC to exit. Health Fidelity had raised $19.3m from unnamed investors in January 2015 before UPMC, which helped the company create its technology, added an undisclosed amount two months later.
Financial services firm KeyBank revealed yesterday it has paid an undisclosed amount to acquire portfolio company XUP Payments, the US-based developer of a digital payment platform. XUP had closed a $3m seed round in May this year featuring KeyBank and VC firm Naples Fintech Ventures.
