Funding
Telecommunications and internet group SoftBank has led a $50m series C round for Mexico-based online furniture retailer Gaia through its Latin America Fund, Entrepreneur reported on Monday. Rise Capital, FJ Labs, Strive Ventures, Amador Ventures, Alpha4Ventures, Inversiones Consolidadas, Humboldt Management, French Partners and Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) also took part in the round. Gaia had raised $2.5m from Capital Invent, Rise Capital, FJ Labs, Variv Capital and Cubo Capital in 2016, $15m in series B funding from investors including Rise Capital, Variv Capital and French Partners in 2018 and $15m from IADB’s IDB Invest vehicle in November 2020.
Hedge fund manager Tiger Global Management invested $50m in Locus Robotics, a US-based autonomous warehouse robot developer backed by warehouse operator Prologis, yesterday. Prologis subsidiary Prologis Ventures joined Tiger Global, Bond and Scale Venture Partners in the company’s $150m series E round in February this year, taking its overall funding to approximately $250m. Its earlier backers include Zebra Ventures, the investment vehicle for product tracking technology provider Zebra Technologies.
Canvas, the US-based creator of an online diversity-focused recruitment platform, raised $50m in series C funding yesterday from investors including video communications software provider Zoom’s Apps Fund at a $400m valuation. Owl Ventures led the round, which also featured Sequoia Capital, HighSage Ventures, Bam Elevate, Fifth Down Capital and private investor Lachy Groom. The company secured $8.5m in series A funding in December 2019 from Sequoia Capital and angel investors Michael Lynton and Joshua Steiner, and $20m in a May 2021 series B round co-led by Sequoia and Lachy Groom that included Four Rivers Capital.
Measurabl, the US-based creator of an environmental, social and governance (ESG) software platform for the real estate industry, completed a $50m series C round today featuring financial information provider S&P Global, real estate services providers Colliers and Cushman & Wakefield, LPC Ventures, Constellation Technology Ventures and Salesforce Ventures – on behalf of property developer Lincoln Property Company, energy producer Exelon and enterprise software producer Salesforce. They were joined by Sway Ventures, Building Ventures, an affiliate of Starwood Capital Group and individuals from Stone Point Capital. The company had raised a total of $31m as of its $18.7m series B round in early 2019.
Sayari Labs, a US-based provider of risk analytics software for the supply chain, received $40m yesterday in a series C round that included SAP NS2, the cybersecurity subsidiary of enterprise software producer SAP. Growth equity fund Centana Growth Partners led the round, which also featured Arsenal Growth, MissionOG, Lavrock Ventures and TFX Capital. Sayari has now raised a total of $54.7m, including $11.5m in a series B round backed by SAP NS2, MissionOG, Lavrock Ventures, TFX Capital, Arsenal Growth and In-Q-Tel that closed in July 2020.
Consumer goods producer Unilever participated in a $40m funding round for US-based influencer marketing software provider CreatorIQ yesterday through corporate venturing unit Unilever Ventures. The corporate was joined by Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors’ Kayne Partners Fund, Affinity Group, TVC Capital and Silver Lake Waterman, and the round pushed its total funding past $76m. Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors led the company’s $24m series B round, in July 2020, which included TVC Capital and existing investor Unilever Ventures.
Television broadcaster MNC Vision Networks has provided $40m in funding for Migo, an Indonesia-based provider of content delivery software. Telecoms firm NTT invested $2m in the company in 2012 through subsidiary NTT Investment Partners, and it raised an undisclosed amount of series B2 funding from Provident Capital, Vickers Venture Partners and private investors Ray Zage, Pandu Sjahrir, Steve Chen and Koh Boon Hwee in September 2020.
China-based commercial robot developer Pudu Technology has secured ‘hundreds of millions of yuan’ (RMB100m = $15.5m) in series C2 funding from unnamed investors, DealStreetAsia reported today. Local services portal Meituan Dianping and Sequoia Capital China contributed to Pudu’s $77.8m series C round in May this year. It had previously raised over $37m from Meituan Dianping, Sequoia China, QC Capital, Rongquan Investment, Chengbohan Fund and Changyingxin Investment.
Health insurer Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City and telecoms firm Telus co-led a $33m series C round yesterday for RecoveryOne, a US-based developer of recovery technology for musculoskeletal conditions, through Cobalt Ventures and Telus Ventures respectively. They were joined by healthcare services firms Cigna (through Cigna Ventures) and Leverage Health Solutions as well as 7wireVentures. RecoveryOne had raised $12m in a late 2019 series B round led by Cigna Ventures that boosted its overall debt and equity financing to $20m.
US-based digital life insurer Sproutt received $26m yesterday in a series B round that included insurance firm Harel Group. Venture capital firm MoreTech Ventures led the round, which was also backed by The Raptor Group and Falcon Edge Capital. The company disclosed $12m in series A funding from insurance firm Guardian Life, State of Mind Ventures and Moneta Capital in late 2019, and it has identified insurers Menora Mivtachim and MS&AD (through MS&AD Ventures) as investors along with FinTLV.
Software provider Microsoft’s M12 subsidiary led a $26m series B round for US-based secure camera technology provider Truepic yesterday. It included Hearst Ventures, the corporate VC arm of media group Hearst, as well as enterprise software producer Adobe, consumer electronics manufacturer Sony’s Innovation Fund by IGV1 and individuals from private equity firm Stone Point Capital. Truepic secured $460,000 from unnamed investors in 2016, $1.75m in seed funding from angel investors Jeffrey Parker, Andrew Flilpowski and William Sahlman the following year and $8m from Parker, Sahlman and Dowling Capital Partners in 2018.
US-based precision biology technology developer RareCyte has closed a $24m financing round featuring analytical instrument producer Agilent Technologies. The round was led by VC firm Arboretum Ventures and included investment and financial services group Fidelity’s F-Prime Capital subsidiary, Logos Capital, HealthQuest Capital, 5AM Ventures and RareCyte founder Ron Seubert. RareCyte had raised an undisclosed sum from Telegraph Hill Partners in 2012, $30m from 5AM Ventures, Telegraph Hill and Ron Seubert in 2017, $5m from an unnamed investor the following year and $22m from 5AM Ventures, Seubert and Healthquest Capital in December 2019.
US-based trade management software developer Modifi raised $24m yesterday from investors including financial services firm Intesa San Paolo’s Neva SGR subsidiary and Maersk Growth, the corporate VC arm of shipping firm Maersk. The round valued Modifi at $120m and was led by Heliad Equity Partners with additional backing from Global Founders Capital (GFC) and Picus Capital. The company had secured a total of $9.6m as of a $6.2m round in mid-2019 co-led by Maersk Growth and GFC that included Picus Capital.
China-based knowledge graph software developer Zhipu.AI has closed a RMB100m ($15.5m) series A round backed by optics technology producer Luster LightTech, China Money Network has reported. Tsinghua Holdings Capital, the private equity arm of Tsinghua University’s asset management subsidiary Tsinghua Holdings, also took part, as did Shenzhen Fortune Caizhi Venture, Jiangmen Ventures and Turing Ventures.
Financial services firm Citi led a $15m series A round yesterday for Amberdata, a US-based developer of digital asset data software. Franklin Templeton, Galaxy Digital, Rovida Kruptos Assets and HWVP also took part in the round along with executives from asset manager GoldenTree Asset Management. It came in the wake of $2m in seed funding from HWVP in 2017.
India-based online recruitment firm Vahan has secured $8m in a series A round featuring telecoms firm Bharti Airtel, the Economic Times reported yesterday. VC firm Khosla Ventures led the round, which included Shakti VC, Pioneer Fund, Spike Ventures and assorted angel investors. Vahan raised a six-figure dollar sum from Spike Ventures, RMKB Ventures and various individuals in 2018 and an undisclosed amount from Bharti Airtel’s Startup Accelerator Program in late 2019.
Israel-based cybersecurity software provider Cynamics received $7m yesterday from investors including automation equipment manufacturer Colibri Technologies. Private investor Marius Nacht led the round, which was also backed by Fantail Ventures, with the funding to go to a US expansion that will include the opening of an office in the city of Boston.
Commodities trader Ezpada supplied $6m in series A funding yesterday for Cortical.io, a US-based provider of software which helps extract information from documents. Cortical raised $2m in seed capital from construction firm Zirngast and VC firm Reventon in 2013, $1.25m from Reventon the following year, $1.8m from Reventon and Open Field Capital in 2015 and an undisclosed amount from chipmaker Xilinx in October 2019.
Rabo Frontier Ventures, a subsidiary of financial services firm Rabobank, has sold its stake in Netherlands-based online investment platform developer Peaks to Haerlem Capital and Rithmeester as part of a €5m ($5.9m) funding round, EU-Startups reported yesterday. Peaks was one of the portfolio companies revealed by Rabo Frontier Ventures when it emerged from stealth in January 2018.
UK-based livestock monitoring system developer CattleEye completed a $2.5m seed round yesterday that included sustainable motor manufacturer Turntide Technologies. VC fund Techstart Ventures led the round, which also featured VC firm Seventure Partners, and the proceeds will support the commercialisation of CattleEye’s technology.
M&A
Customer analytics technology provider Comlinkdata agreed yesterday to acquire Opensignal, a US-based developer of experience analysis software for mobile networks, in a deal of undisclosed size that would allow mobile semiconductor producer Qualcomm and media company O’Reilly to exit. Opensignal received an undisclosed amount from Frog Capital in October 2018, seven months after raising $8m in a series B round led by Octopus Ventures and backed by Qualcomm subsidiary Qualcomm Ventures, O’Reilly unit OATV and Passion Capital, taking its overall funding to $13.3m.
Creative entertainment services provider Sumo Group bought Auroch Digital, a UK-based video game studio backed by online gaming platform operator Miniclip, for an undisclosed amount yesterday. Auroch had secured approximately $260,000 from Bristol Private Equity Club in February 2019 together with an undisclosed amount from Miniclip.
Additional reporting by Thierry Heles.
