AAA Daily Deal Round Up: October 6, 2021

Daily Deal Round Up: October 6, 2021

Funding

Electronics producer LG led US-based data collaboration software developer Duality Technologies’ $30m series B round yesterday through its LG Technology Ventures unit. The round included Intel Capital, Hearst Ventures and NAventures, on behalf of chipmaker Intel, media group Hearst and financial services firm National Bank of Canada, as well as Euclidean Capital and Team8. Duality said it has now raised $49m in total, $16m in a late 2019 round led by Intel Capital and backed by Hearst Ventures and Team8.

US-based e-commerce logistics service Pandion disclosed $30m in funding yesterday, including $7.5m in a round led by telecommunications firm Telstra’s investment arm, Telstra Ventures. It was announced together with a $22.5m series A round led by Bow Capital and backed by Playground Global, Schematic Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures and Innovation Endeavors: the four investors which provided $4.9m for Pandion through a seed round announced when it emerged from stealth in February this year.

Israel-headquartered cybersecurity software startup Adaptive Shield raised $30m yesterday in a series A round that included Okta Ventures, the corporate venture capital vehicle for identity management software provider Okta. Growth equity firm Insight Partners led the round and it also featured Vertex Ventures Israel, which had led Adaptive Shield’s $4m seed round in August 2020.

Coconut Software, a Canada-based developer of appointment scheduling technology for the financial services industry, secured C$28m ($22.2m) yesterday in a series B round featuring credit union Conexus, which invested through its Venture Capital Fund. The round was led by growth equity firm Klass Capital and included Information Venture Partners (IVP), ScaleUp Ventures, PIC Investment Group and Bay Partners. The company raised $3.3m from IVP, ScaleUp Ventures, StandUp Ventures and existing investors PIC and Bay Partners in a 2017 series A round that took its total funding to $4m. They returned for a $4.9m series A2 round in November 2019 led by Conexus Venture Capital Fund and also backed by mutual fund SaskWorks.

Singapore-headquartered equity management software provider Qapita has received $15m in series A funding from investors including MassMutual Ventures, the corporate VC subsidiary of insurance firm Massachusetts Mutual Life, Entrackr reported yesterday. Vulcan Capital co-led the round with East Ventures’ Growth Fund, and they were joined by Nyca Partners, Endiya Partners and various angel investors. It followed a $5m pre-series A round led by MassMutual Ventures in April this year that boosted Qapita’s total funding to $6.8m.

US-based mobility insurance provider Voom raised $15m yesterday from investors including telecoms firm Verizon’s corporate venturing unit, Verizon Ventures, to increase its overall funding to $22m. The round was co-led by JAL Ventures and Up Partners and also featured F2 Venture Capital, Kaedan Capital, Arbor Ventures and Icon Continuity Fund. Voom had emerged from stealth in mid-2019 having just secured $5m in series A funding from Verizon Ventures and fellow existing investors F2 Capital and Kaedan Capital as well as Arbor Ventures and Plug and Play Ventures.

Grocery delivery service Ocado invested £10m ($13.6m) in UK-based autonomous mobility technology developer Wayve today through a partnership agreement which will involve the latter’s technology being trialled on Ocado vans. Eclipse Ventures, Balderton Capital, Compound Ventures, Fly Ventures and First Minute Capital had joined assorted angel investors to supply $20m in series A funding for Wayve in November 2019, reportedly lifting its overall funding to $23.1m.

Techspert.io, a UK-headquartered technology intelligence provider backed by aerospace and defence manufacturer Marshall of Cambridge, completed a $12m funding round yesterday co-led by BGF and Nauta Capital. The company’s total funding now stands at $18.2m, $4.9m coming from Nauta Capital, Cambridge Angels, GW Asia Capital, Zack Feather and John Spearman in a February 2020 series A round. Marshall had already invested through corporate venturing arm Martlet Capital.

Autify, the Japan-based creator of a no-code software testing platform, received $10m yesterday in a series A round featuring data software provider Tably and Salesforce Ventures, the investment arm of enterprise software producer Salesforce. VC firm World Innovation Lab led the round, which included Archetype Ventures, Uncorrelated Ventures and angel investor Jonathan Siegel. It came after Salesforce Ventures, Archetype Ventures and Global Brain co-led a $2.5m seed round that in late 2019 that took Autify’s overall funding to $3.5m. It also named Tably as an existing investor this week.

US-based safe battery technology developer Amionx raised an undisclosed amount of series B funding yesterday from Qualcomm Ventures, the investment arm of mobile chipmaker Qualcomm, in addition to Hongkou Management and Inherent Group. A securities filing shows Amionx had secured $6m from three investors in June this year for a round with an $11m target for its close. Qualcomm had invested an amount indicated by a separate filing to be $5m in the company in 2017.

IpiNovyx Bio, a US-based developer of drug treatments for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, completed a $10m seed round yesterday led by drug discovery technology provider Viva Biotech through its Viva BioInnovator vehicle. The round also featured pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly and Alexandria Venture Investments, the VC arm of life science real estate investment trust Alexandria Real Estate Equities, as well as Opaleye Management and Orange Grove Bio.

Software producer Microsoft’s M12 subsidiary led a $9.3m funding round for UK-headquartered graph application software provider Memgraph yesterday. Heavybit, In-Q-Tel, Counterview Capital, ID4 Ventures and Mundi Ventures also contributed to the round, which followed $2.1m in a 2016 seed round led by Connect Ventures and $6.7m from M12, Counterview Capital, In-Q-Tel, Mundi Ventures, Heavybit and ID4 Ventures in January this year.

Morocco-based retail digitalisation software developer Chari has secured $5m in a seed round co-led by e-commerce holding group Rocket Internet at a $70m valuation, TechCrunch reported today. The round was co-led with Global Founders Capital and P1 Ventures and included Orange Ventures, the corporate venturing subsidiary of telecoms firm Orange, as well as Y Combinator, Plug and Play, Village Capital/MetLife Foundation, SPE Capital, Pincus Private Equity, the Chandaria family and angel investors including Michael Lahyani.

Classified listings operator Info Edge has led a primary and secondary funding round for India-based geospatial software developer Attentive sized at just over $2m, YourStory reported today. The pre-series A round was led by the corporate’s Info Edge Ventures unit and included Redstart Labs and individuals including Pavitar Singh and Abhishek Khurana.

 

M&A

E-commerce group Amazon’s Alexa Fund exited US-based virtual influencer creator Brud on Monday in an acquisition of undisclosed size by blockchain game provider Dapper Labs. The company closed a $19.5m round in March 2019 reportedly led by Spark Capital at a $125m valuation, following a reported $6m from investors including Sequoia Capital, BoxGroup and SV Angel as of 2018. It is also listed as a portfolio company by Alexa Fund, Sinai Ventures and Craft Ventures.

By Robert Lavine

Robert Lavine is special features editor for Global Venturing.