Funding
Luminopia, the US-based creator of a virtual reality treatment for lazy eye, has secured about $12m in funding from investors including Sesame Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of children’s television producer Sesame Workshop, TechCrunch reported on Friday. It was joined by angel investors including Robert Langer and Jeffrey Dunn, the latter formerly the president and chief executive of Sesame Workshop.
Japan-based audio speaker producer Soundfun received ¥610m ($5.5m) in funding on Friday from broadcaster Nippon TV, science park operator KSP and Spotlight, a provider of user interface design software. The company raised $890,000 in a 2016 round featuring Mitsubishi UFJ Capital – a subsidiary of financial services group Mitsubishi UFJ – hardware manufacturer Nishigaki and First Brothers Capital. It added $970,000 from Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Capital, a vehicle for insurer Mitsui Sumitomo, in addition to chemical producer Kureha and Iyogin Capital, in 2017; and $1.8m from postal service Japan Posts’s investment arm, Japan Post Capital, the following year.
Country Garden Ventures, the VC arm of real estate developer Country Garden, has invested an eight-digit yuan amount (RMB10m = $1.55m) in ChromX Health, a China-based developer of technology utilising volatile organic compound (VOC) biomarkers, VCBeat reported on Friday. It came after VC firm ZhenFund provided a similar amount for the startup in May this year.
Gradient Ventures, the artificial intelligence-focused fund set up by internet technology provider Google, co-led a $3.5m seed round for Netherlands-based data science software startup Orchest on Friday. The round was co-led by VC firm Basis Set Ventures, and also featured institutional investors that included Seedcamp and individuals including Pete Soderling according to TechCrunch.
US-based RNA splicing therapeutics developer Envisagenics raised an undisclosed amount of series A financing last month from investors including M12, the corporate venturing arm of software provider Microsoft. The round was led by Red Cell Partners and also featured Madrona Venture Group, Third Kind Venture Capital (3KVC), Dynamk Capital and New York Ventures, a vehicle for the state of New York’s Empire State Development (ESD) fund. The company had secured $2.35m from 3KVC, Dynamk Capital, ESD, Cosine, Dolby Family Ventures and SV Angel in 2017 and $1m from M12 the following year.
CodeSee, a US-based provider of software that helps users understand complex coding, received $3m last month in a seed round that included enterprise software producer Salesforce’s corporate venturing unit, Salesforce Ventures. VC firms Boldstart Ventures and Uncork Capital co-led the round, which was also backed by DCVC, Precursor Ventures and angel investors including Edith Harbaugh, Guy Podjarny, Dan Bentley and Adam Sah.
Seabury Global Markets, a subsidiary of financial and IT services provider Seabury Capital Group, supplied an undisclosed amount of seed funding on Friday for PointsKash, the US-based developer of a blockchain-powered mobile rewards offering. The corporate is set to lead a seed round of undisclosed size for PointsKash, and Seabury Global Markets CEO Rob Fleschler is on the latter’s advisory board.
ChainCargo, a Netherlands-based freight forwarder backed by financial services firm Rabobank, has secured €1.75m ($2m) from investors including BOM Brabant Ventures, Silicon Canals reported on Friday. BOM Brabant Ventures and an entity known as ChainGroup had provided $450,000 for the company in October 2019 before the former joined Rabobank to invest another $600,000 in September 2020.
Fast food franchisee Jubilant FoodWorks led a Rs 110m ($1.5m) funding round for India-based healthy and nutritious food brand Wellversed last month, taking a 25% stake according to The Economic Times. Wellversed had raised $250,000 from angel investors Tejinderpal Miglani, Alok Mittal and Rohit Chanana in 2018 before fellow private investor Yuvraj Singh led a pre-series A round of undisclosed size in October 2020.
SportsNation, a Japan-based recruitment service focused on the sports industry, closed a ¥90m ($810,000) seed round on Friday featuring media digitisation agency Inclusive, bank-focused consulting firm Banker, Case Fund, 90sManagement and undisclosed angel investors. The company, which was founded by University of Tokyo students, also named toy producer Wiz as an earlier investor.
Camelove, the Japan-based operator of camera equipment subscription service GooPass, received an undisclosed amount of funding from electronics retailer Bic Camera’s corporate venturing arm, Bic Innovation Capital, on Friday. It is the first investment to be closed by the unit since it was founded in June this year.
Big Whale Labs, a Canada-headquartered developer of non-fungible token-based social interaction technology, disclosed $655,000 in pre-seed funding on Friday from investors including Samsung Next, a corporate VC subsidiary of consumer electronics manufacturer Samsung. VC firm Slow Ventures led the round, which also featured Intonation Ventures, NFT Investments and individuals including Anton Bukov, Sergej Kunz and Alex Shin.
M&A
E-commerce marketplace Nuvemshop disclosed on Friday it has acquired Mandaê, a Brazil-based logistics services platform developer backed by logistics provider UPS, mobile chipmaker Qualcomm and e-commerce company Mercado Libre, for an undisclosed amount. The corporates took part in a $7.1m series B round for Mandaê in 2018 together with International Finance Corporation, Icon Holding Company, Tekton Ventures, FJ Labs, Performa Investimentos and Monashees, investing through UPS Strategic Enterprise Fund, Qualcomm Ventures and Mercado Libre Fund respectively, helping to take the company’s total funding to just over $11m.
Additional reporting by Liwen-Edison Fu.
