Funding
Financial services firm Citi has co-led a $23m funding round for US-based home rental finance provider Jetty with VC fund Flourish Ventures, TechCrunch reported yesterday. Insurance group Farmers Insurance, online lending platform developer CreditEase, K5 Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Ribbit Capital also took part in the round, which followed an undisclosed sum from Farmers Insurance in January this year. Jetty raised $4m in seed capital from Ribbit Capital, Box Group, Social Capital, SV Angel, Red Swan, MetaProp NYC and Solon Mack Capital in 2016, $11.5m in series A funding from Valar Ventures, Ribbit Capital, SV Angel, BoxGroup and Red Swan in 2017 and $25m in series B financing from Khosla Ventures, Valar Ventures and Ribbit Capital in February 2019.
Digital media group ByteDance has co-led a series A round for China-based internet-of-things (IoT) technology provider RiVai, DealStreetAsia reported yesterday. The round was co-led by Hillhouse Capital and also featured Legend Capital, the venture capital firm formed by conglomerate Legend Holdings, as well as Wu Capital, Tsing Ventures, ZhenFund and Northern Light Venture Capital. The company had received an undisclosed amount from Northern Light Venture Capital and Baidu Ventures, part of internet group Baidu, in 2019.
US-headquartered e-commerce branding group Rainforest has completed a $20m pre-series A round featuring hospitality group Lo & Behold Group, TechCrunch reported today. VC firm Monk’s Hill Ventures led the round, which included January Capital, Crossbeam Venture Partners, Amasia, Nordstar and Insignia Venture Partners. The last two had provided $6.5m in seed funding for Rainforest in May this year alongside $30m in debt financing from an unnamed fund.
Japan-based furniture rental service Clas raised ¥2.1bn ($19m) today from Globis Capital Partners, an investment vehicle for education services provider Globis, and Monoful, a subsidiary of logistics provider Global Logistic Properties. The company received an undisclosed amount of seed capital from Anri and various individuals in 2018, $3.4m from Anri and Nihon Unisys’s Canal Ventures subsidiary in May 2019 and $1.8m from IT recruitment and gaming services provider Geechs seven months later.
China-based stem cell therapy developer XellSmart has closed a pre-series A round sized at almost RMB100m ($15.5m) that was co-led by Lilly Asia Ventures, an investment vehicle for pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly, DealStreetAsia reported today. VC firm Qiming Venture Partners co-led the round, which included Tao Capital, Next Capital, Frees Fund, Yuanbio Venture Capital and Teda Venture Capital. The last three had joined corporate services provider Suhehui to invest ‘millions of dollars’ in the company in June this year.
Veterinary care providers National Veterinary Associates and UnaVets invested in US-headquartered veterinary software developer Petabyte Technology yesterday in a $15m series B round. Norwest Ventures Partners, Halle Capital Management and Relevance Ventures also contributed to the round, which came in the wake of $10m in series A funding from Acrew Capital, Greycroft Partners, Correlation Ventures and Ridge Ventures in December 2019.
US-based spacecraft refuelling service provider Orbit Fab has raised over $10m from aerospace and defence manufacturers Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday. Orbit Fab closed $6m in seed funding in December 2020 from Munich Re Ventures, the investment arm of reinsurance firm Munich Re, as well as Type 1 Ventures and TechStars to boost its overall funding to about $7m.
PopID, the US-based provider of a consumer identity authentication service, completed a $10m series B round this summer featuring restaurant holding company Cali Group, restaurant supplier Wasserstrom Company and Japan Computer Vision, a subsidiary of internet and telecommunications group SoftBank, it revealed yesterday. Cali co-founded and seeded PopID before contributing to a $5m series A round led by Wavemaker Capital in 2019.
Marpipe, the US-based developer of a software testing platform, secured $8m in series A funding yesterday from investors including consumer electronics manufacturer Samsung and Ripple Ventures, a subsidiary of cross-border payment platform developer Ripple. The round was led by Stage 2 Capital and also featured Commerce Ventures and ValueStream Ventures. Marpipe had raised $2m in seed financing from Laconia Capital, Tribe Capital, MathCapital and TIA Ventures as of April this year.
DeBridge, the Spain-headquartered developer of a liquidity transfer protocol, completed a $5.5m funding round yesterday featuring blockchain game developer Animoca and proprietary trading firm MGNR Brands as well as Huobi Ventures and Crypto.com Capital, on behalf of cryptocurrency exchange Huobi and crypto services provider Crypto.com respectively. It included Lemniscap, IOSG Ventures, Fundamental Labs, Krypital Group, BitScale, DFG Capital, Chorus, SkyVision Capital, The LAO, GSR, AngelDAO, NeptuneDAO, D64 Ventures, Axia8 Ventures and angel investors Gabby Dizon and Santiago R. Santos.
Enterprise software producer Zoho has paid $5m for a 25% stake in Voxelgrids, an India-based developer of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology, YourStory reported yesterday. The startup is working on MRI scanners intended to be a cost-effective alternative for domestic healthcare providers.
Indonesia-based online grocer Pasarnow has received $3.3m in funding from investors including SMDV, an investment vehicle for diversified conglomerate Sinar Mas, AgFunder reported today. The round was led by VC East Ventures and also featured telecoms infrastructure provider and investment firm Prasetia Dwidharma, Amand Ventures, Skystar Capital and unnamed angel investors.
Shipping service Transworld Group has co-led a $2m pre-series A round for India-based intra-city logistics service provider Cogos Technologies with VC firm Worldquant Ventures yesterday, Entrepreneur reported. Ritesh S. Ramakrishnan, Transworld’s chief operating officer for the Indian subcontinent, is taking a board seat at Cogos in connection with the round. The company had already raised $1m from Emergent Ventures and individuals including Niraj Saran in a June 2019 pre-series A round.
SolRazr, the India-based developer of a decentralised developer ecosystem for the Solana blockchain, disclosed $1.5m in seed funding today from investors including digital trading firm Skynet Trading. It was joined by Moonrock Capital, Ascensive Assets, Morningstar Ventures, Genesis Block Ventures, Divergence, Genblock Capital, CMS Holdings, ZBS Capital, Panony and angel investors including Sam Kazemian, Leo Cheng, Santiago R. Santos and Chris McCann.
UK-based social lending marketplace Plend raised £700,000 ($970,000) in pre-seed funding yesterday from investors including NBS Ventures, a subsidiary of building society Nationwide. The corporate was joined in the round by Tomahawk.VC, Ascension Venturs and Haatch.
TechEagle, the India-headquartered operator of a drone-based delivery service, secured $500,000 yesterday in a seed round that included logistics service provider Sitics Logistics. The round was led by India Accelerator and also featured Vinners Group and undisclosed angel investors.
Yanekara, a Japan-based developer of solar charging systems for electric vehicles, received ¥55m ($500,000) in seed capital today from investors including internet and telecoms group SoftBank’s Deepcore subsidiary. The round was led by University of Tokyo’s Innovation Platform’s AOI fund 1, which invested $380,000, in addition to undisclosed angel investors.
M&A
Payment services firm Mastercard agreed yesterday to purchase Aiia, the Denmark-based open banking software developer formerly known as Nordic API Gateway, for an undisclosed sum, providing exits for financial services firms Danske Bank and DNB. Danske Bank had invested $2.9m in the company in May 2018 and $1.5m in December the same year before joining DNB in a $5m round in April 2020.
Educational materials provider Byju’s has paid an undisclosed amount for Gradeup, the India-based developer of an online exam preparation platform, allowing media company Bennett Coleman & Co (BCC) to exit, Business Standard reported today. BCC subsidiary Times Internet supplied $3m in seed funding for Gradeup before adding $7m in series A financing in late 2019.
Additional reporting by Liwen-Edison Fu.
