Funding
US-based neurological disease therapy developer Axial Therapeutics closed a $37.3m series C round yesterday featuring Taiho Ventures, the investment arm of pharmaceutical firm Taiho. The round was co-led by OneVentures and University of Tokyo’s Innovation Platform Company and included Autism Impact Fund, Corundum Systems Biology, Longwood Fund, Seventure Partners and Domain Associates. Axial has now raised $91.5m in total, Taiho Ventures having put up $10m to close a series B round featuring care provider Heritage Medical Systems, Health for Life Capital, Longwood Fund and Domain Associates at $35m in mid-2019.
Leap, the US-based operator of a system that connects energy providers to customers, received $33.5m in series B equity and debt financing yesterday from investors including National Grid Partners (NGP), a subsidiary of energy provider National Grid. The equity portion was led by Park West Asset Management and backed by Climate Capital, My Climate Journey, Union Square Ventures (USV), Congruent Ventures and angel investor David Helgason while the debt portion was provided by Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). The company had raised $11m as of an $8.2m series A round in January 2020 led by USV and backed by NGP, Congruent Ventures, Powerhouse Ventures, Elemental Excelerator, FJ Labs and SVB.
Internet group Alphabet took part in a $33m series A round for US-based on-demand nurse and phlebotomist provider Sprinter Health yesterday through corporate venturing unit GV. Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz led the round, which also featured General Catalyst and Accel. Sprinter additionally revealed it had closed a $4.6m seed round led by General Catalyst in March this year and backed by individuals including Kevin Lin, Jason Rubin and John Lagerling.
Aramco Ventures, a corporate venturing subsidiary of petrochemical producer Saudi Aramco, led a $23m series A round for StreamNative, the US-based creator of an integrated messaging software platform, through its Prosperity7 Ventures fund. The corporate was joined by undisclosed participants in StreamNative’s seed round, the company having reportedly originally raised cash from Sequoia Capital China before adding an undisclosed amount from Source Code Capital in October 2020.
US-based e-commerce insurance provider Mulberry secured $22m yesterday in a series B round that included online lending platform developer CreditEase and financial services provider Ally Bank. The round was led by Commerce Ventures and also featured Hudson Structured Capital Management and unnamed existing investors. Mulberry had received $2.75m in seed capital from Quiet Capital, Founder Collective, Commerce Ventures, Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, Foundation Capital and angel investor Sam Hinkie in 2018, and the first four joined Pace Capital, G20 Ventures and Tuhaye Ventures in a $10m series A round in September 2020.
Rejuvenate Biomed, a Belgium-based developer of therapeutics for age-related diseases, raised €15.7m ($18.1m) on Tuesday in a series B round led by biotechnology producer Rejuveron Life Sciences in a deal that will enable it to eventually acquire a majority stake. Life sciences-focused VC fund Vesalius Biocapital co-led the round having also led the company’s $3.8m series A round in March this year.
Akadeum Life Sciences, a US-based provider of biological sample separation technology, completed a $17.5m series B round on Tuesday featuring analytical instrument producer Agilent Technologies. The round was led by Arboretum Ventures and included Beringea, Lifespan Ventures, BlueStone Venture Partners, Berkeley Catalyst Fund, Michigan Capital Network, Michigan Rise and University of Michigan. Akadeum had previously raised a total of $3.9m in financing between 2014 and 2018 according to securities filings, including $1.5m from BioInflexion, University of Michigan’s Mints programme, 5 Prime Ventures, eLab Ventures and Invest Detroit in 2017.
WattBuy, the US-headquartered operator of a service which enables users to access clean energy, increased its series A round to approximately $13.3m on Tuesday with a $10m second tranche co-led by energy and automation technology producer Schneider Electric’s by SE Ventures unit. It was co-led with MCJ Collective and also featured Evergy Ventures, a subsidiary of energy utility Evergy, as well as Updater, Powerhouse Ventures, Techstars Ventures, Avesta Fund and angel investor Yoav Lurie, all of which backed the round’s November 2020 first close. WattBuy has now raised nearly $14.8m altogether.
VC firm World Innovation Lab added an undisclosed amount today to a series B round for Japan-based virtual reality game developer Thirdverse that stood at $11.5m as of August this year. Blockchain game publisher Animoca Brands, telecoms firm KDDI’s Open Innovation Fund, Incubate Fund, Jafco, Presence Capital and Hiro Kunimitsu provided the initial capital, which lifted the company’s overall funding to over $20m.
Consumer finance provider Klarna led US-headquartered mobile commerce software developer Violet’s $10m series A round on Tuesday, participating together with Sugar Capital, Red Sea Ventures and angel investor Lachy Groom. The company revealed Red Sea Ventures had co-led its $3m seed round in July this year and said the series A proceeds will fund recruitment in growth, product and engineering.
US-based cost optimisation software developer Cast AI closed a $10m series A round on Tuesday that included Samsung Next, a corporate venturing subsidiary of consumer electronics manufacturer Samsung. Investment firm Cota Capital led the round, which also featured undisclosed additional investors and which came in the wake of $7.7m in seed funding from TA Ventures, DNX Ventures, Florida Funders and unnamed individuals in June 2020.
DeHorizon, the US-headquartered creator an immersive metaverse game based on decentralised business practices, completed an $8.5 million pre-series A round on Tuesday featuring crypto exchange ByBit and mobile game publishers Gumi (through Gumi Cryptos Capital), Animoca Brands, Yield Guild Games and Akatsuki. The round was co-led by Sfermion, Dragonfly Capital and Everest Ventures Group and included Mechanism Capital, Infinity Venture Crypto, BitScale, Republic Realm, Youbi Capital, The Lao, LD Capital, Momentum 6, Dialectic, Stable Node, Kardia Ventures, Tess Ventures, Meteorite Labs, Taureon, Ruby Capital, Jsquare, Zonff Partners, Pluto Capital, WaYi, Formless Capital, Crasolum, Lucid Blue Ventures, Puzzle Ventures, Maeve Ventures and Blockdream Ventures. It followed an undisclosed amount of seed funding from angel investors Bo Feng, Darren Lau, Santigo Santos, Miss Bitcoin and MASA, DeHorizon said.
Digital payment platform developer Fawry co-led a $5m funding round on Tuesday for Alsoug, the Sudan-based operator of an online e-commerce marketplace. The company did not reveal who co-led the round with Fawry but said the other participants were western VC funds. It will put the cash towards launching a secure digital payment network in its home country.
Yup, the US-headquartered operator of a social media platform tailored for digital content creators, secured $3.5m in funding on Tuesday from investors including blockchain game developer Dapper Labs. The round was led by investment firm Distributed Global and also featured LD Capital and undisclosed angel investors.
South Korea-based digital sketching software startup Sketchsoft has raised $3.2m in a series A round co-led by telecommunications and internet group SoftBank through its SoftBank Ventures Asia subsidiary, DealStreetAsia reported yesterday. SV Investment co-led the round, which also featured fellow VC firm Bluepoint Partners.
Skyline Robotics, the US-based creator of a robotic window cleaning system, increased its overall funding to $6m on Tuesday with $3m from investors including cleaning equipment manufacturer Alfred Kärcher’s corporate venturing unit, Kärcher New Ventures. The new investors also included Gefen Capital and Iconyc, the latter having joined Kärcher New Ventures and the families behind real estate developers Bosa Properties and Sufrin Group to supply $3m in seed financing for Skyline in 2018.
Japan-based digitalisation support provider Utill received ¥240m ($2.1m) in series A funding today from investors including CyberAgent Capital, Colopl Next and Gree Ventures, on behalf of internet group Cyberagent, mobile game publisher Colopl and digital media group Gree respectively. The round also featured Base Partners, Okasan Capital Partners and Nippon Venture Capital.
Personal trainer provider Embody Fitness led a $1.8m funding round on Tuesday for Steppi, the United Arab Emirates-based owner of a digital corporate wellness service. Embody Fitness co-founders James Miller and Sharare Hau will take the chief executive and chief commercial officer positions at the startup, which said it had raised money in two earlier rounds, without giving details.
FourFront, a US-based company developing short-form fiction videos for the TikTok platform, has received $1.5m in seed capital from investors including media group Bertelsmann’s BDMI subsidiary, it told TechCrunch on Tuesday. The participants were rounded out by Bam Ventures, Slow Ventures, Alumni Ventures Group and Hustle Fund.
Diversified conglomerate Marubeni provided an undisclosed amount for Revelio Labs, the US-headquartered creator of a data software platform for use in human resources, through its Marubeni Ventures unit today. Revelio raised $4m in a July 2021 seed round co-led by financial services firm Barclays and K20 Fund that included media group Bertelsmann’s BDMI unit in addition to NYU Ventures, BoxOne Ventures, DataFrame Ventures and 840 Venture Partners, valuing it at $29m.
Japan-based database management technology developer Minitt secured ¥60m ($530,000) today in a seed round featuring Monex Ventures, the corporate venturing subsidiary of currency exchange Monex, and online recruitment service Visional’s BizReach Founder Fund. The corporates were joined by VC firm Headline Asia’s Launchpad Fund.
Telecoms firm KDDI invested an undisclosed sum in Touch To Go, the Japan-based creator of an automated retail system, today. The cash was supplied through the KDDI Open Innovation Fund in which VC firm Global Brain is a general partner.
M&A
Big-box retailer Best Buy agreed on Tuesday to acquire US-based remote healthcare software provider Current Health for an undisclosed amount in a deal that would enable health system OSF HealthCare and financial services firm Legal & General to exit. Current’s overall funding stood at $65m as of its $43m series B round in April this year and its shareholders include Northpond Ventures, LRVHealth, Section 32, Elements Health Ventures, MMC Ventures, Par Equity and Scottish Investment Bank.
Connected sports technology producer Slinger agreed on Tuesday to buy PlaySight Interactive, a US-based performance analytics technology developer backed by internet and telecoms group SoftBank and telecoms firm Verizon, in an all-share deal valued at $82m. The company’s funding stood at $26m as of a $21m series C round in 2018 featuring SoftBank subsidiary SoftBank Ventures Asia, Verizon unit Verizon Ventures, CE Ventures, Greg Norman’s family office and private investor David Chessler.
Additional reporting by Liwen-Edison Fu.
