Weekly corporate venturing deal net: 21-24 December 2015
Each week the Global Corporate Venturing Deal Net rounds up the week’s smaller deals and tracks the emerging companies accessing corporate funds.
Weekly corporate venturing deal net: 25-31 December 2015
Each Friday the Global Corporate Venturing Deal Net rounds up the week’s smaller deals and tracks the emerging companies accessing corporate funds.
Corporate VC in 2015: The Trends, Part One
It’s been a heady year in corporate venturing, with companies racking up huge valuations, the emergence of new hot areas in venture capital and the maturation of others. As we move towards 2016, Global Corporate Venturing takes an in-depth look at some of this year’s overarching trends.
Corporate VC in 2015: The Trends, Part Two
We continue our look at the defining trends in corporate venturing this year, including sports and online gaming, new media consolidation and funding for online education providers.
Global Corporate Venturing & Innovation Awards 2016
Shortlist announced for our January 27 Global Corporate Venturing & Innovation Awards 2016 in Sonoma at the Global Corporate Venturing and Innovation Summit.
Fundraising
Vertex Ventures closes Infosys-backed fund at $151m
Infosys joined anchor investor Temasek to invest in the firm’s first fund, which is supporting enterprise and cloud infrastructure startups.
The publisher has launched a fund targeting virtual reality gaming and is also planning to form partnerships with studios in the industry.
Corporate-backed venture fund High-Tech Gründerfonds will invest $655,000 at seed stage in return for an equity stake of up to 15% from January 2016.
Google helps international startups lift off
Google’s Launchpad Accelerator will focus on mobile startups in Brazil, India and Indonesia and will not require an equity stake.
Modern Sky and Shanghai Joy form $463m entertainment fund
The deal also involved Fosun subsidiary Shanghai Joy paying $20m for a 10% stake in record label and festival promoter Modern Sky.
People
Less than 18 months after co-founding Google Ventures Europe as a general partner, Eze Vidra is leaving Google Ventures and parent company Alphabet.
Burke to assist CCL in Silicon Valley
Patty Burke, previously a consultant at corporate venturing consultancy Bell Mason and a partner at Accelevate, has joined Centre for Creative Leadership.
Exits
Amgen buys Medigene immunotherapy spinout Catherex
Catherex was spun out of Medigene, which held a 40% stake in the company, in 2010, and Amgen will pay $10.5m, with milestone payments to come.
Arre acquires video content platform Apalya
The mobile content delivery company had raised about $21m from backers including Cisco, Qualcomm and IDG, but has reportedly been acquired for less than $4m.
Freshdesk tables Konotor purchase
Konotor, which had obtained about $150,000 in funding from backers including Qualcomm and Target, has been acquired by Freshdesk for an undisclosed sum.
Tencent-backed eJiaJie to float in China
The household services booking app has been backed by Tencent since its $650,000 seed round in 2013, and has filed to list on NEEQ.
The cloud enterprise platform, which counts Sapphire Ventures among its investors, has raised a total of $312m in funding since 2009.
SolidFire shines in $870m acquisition
Samsung has exited flash storage manufacturer SolidFire as the company is acquired by NetApp.
Microsoft dives into Metanautix
Metanautix, backed by Workday, has been acquired by Microsoft for an undisclosed amount.
Riot reaches final level for Tencent acquisition
Tencent has fully acquired games developer Riot, in which it already owned a majority stake following a $400m investment in 2011.
Architel gets an exit as Purch gets ShopSavvy
The purchase of price comparison app provider ShopSavvy, backed by Architel, marks Purch’s fourth acquisition this year.
Salesforce to forge $600m SteelBrick acquisition
Salesforce is reportedly considering an acquisition of SteelBrick for up to $600m, having contributed to its series B and C rounds earlier this year.
Shanghai Joyu books public market trip
Jinjiang International-backed tourism website Lvmama’s parent company has listed on China’s National Equities Exchange and Quotations market.
BuildingIQ engineers $14.3m IPO
The energy management software producer has listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, providing an exit to Siemens and corporate-backed Aster Capital.
IT
MapAnything locates Salesforce for $7.3m series A
The geo-location technology company has secured funding from backers including Salesforce, and is also part of the Salesforce ISV Partner Program.
NextInput touches corporates for $8m
Intel and GoerTek participated in a round that increased the touch-enabled technology company’s total funding to more than $11m.
Nokia joins WorkFusion investors for $14m series C
Nokia’s corporate venturing unit led a round that increased the workflow automation company’s total funding to more than $36m.
Palantir expands latest round to $880m
RELX-backed big data technology supplier Palantir has added an additional $200m to a round that values it at more than $20bn.
The Google Ventures-backed app development technology provider has now raised more than $25m in debt and equity since it was founded.
Far East has contributed to a series B round for Flux, a cloud-based data exchange service for architects, engineers and contractors.
Qualcomm helpls Memblaze refresh series C
Memblaze secured $20m for the round last year in a first close that featured Bertelsmann and ZTE.
Toyota provides $8m for Preferred Networks
Artificial intelligence developer Preferred Networks, which spun out of Preferred Infrastructure last year, is receiving $8.3m from the carmaker as part of a strategic partnership.
Janrain logs into $27m series D
Salesforce-backed marketing technology developer Janrain raised $27m in funding in a round that will support the strengthening of its data analytics technology.
Health
InnFocus finds room for series C funding
The Hoya and Santen-backed glaucoma treatment developer has closed its series C round at $33.9m and has now raised almost $50m in total.
Neural Analytics heads to $10m series A
Taiyu Capital, a corporate venturing unit of TigerMed, is among the investors in a round that increased the concussion response specialist’s total funding to $13m.
Assurex secures investor confidence for $15m
The personalised medicine company has now raised $83m altogether from investors including Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and Mayo Clinic.
Novan spots investors for $30m
Novan, which is planning to move its acne drug candidate into phase 3 trials next year, raised $50m in a Malin Corporation-backed round in March.
Effector implants $40m in series B
GlaxoSmithKline, Astellas, AbbVie and Novartis are among the investors in a $40m series B round for the cancer treatment developer.
Axonics modulates $38.5m series B
Legend Capital returned for the medical device maker’s second funding round, having previously backed a $32.6m series A.
Corporates help guide WellDoc to $22m series B
Samsung and Merck have participated in a first close of WellDoc’s series B round which will support commercialisation of its diabetes treatment management app.
Navitor navigates its way to $33m
GlaxoSmithKline and Johnson & Johnson returned to join Sanofi in backing the biopharmaceutical company’s series B round, bringing its total funding to more than $65m.
Poseida fishes for $30m from Malin
Life sciences company Malin will invest up to $30m in the series A round closed by Poseida Therapeutics, which is working on liver disease and cancer treatments.
Orig3n finds source for $12.5m
The genetic diseases treatment startup has now raised almost $16m altogether, after closing a series A round backed by LabCorp.
Summation Health Ventures seeks out MD Insider
The physician performance platform took its total funding to more than $23m in a round led by corporate-backed VC fund Summation Health Ventures.
Media
Dentsu helps fund From Scratch
Digital marketing platform developer From Scratch has followed an Itochu-backed round earlier in the year with an $8.3m round featuring Dentsu.
InnoVid pushes forward with $27.5m
The video advertising platform has now raised about $65m in total, after Cisco and Deutsche Telekom returned to support its latest round.
VMFive counts $6m for series A
The company has created technology to create playable adverts in order to increase user engagement.
Tastemade savours $40m series D
Existing backers Comcast, Liberty and Scripps all returned for the online media company’s latest round and were joined by investors including Tohokushinsha Film.
Consumer
Alibaba to dish up $1.25bn for Ele.me
Alibaba is set to become food delivery platform Ele.me’s largest shareholder in a deal that will value the company at just over $4.5bn.
Neoness works out with Tikehau
Neoness, which operates a gym chain across Paris and other French cities, has raised $27.4m from Tikehau subsidiary Salvepar.
PepperTap adds more flavour to series B
PepperTap has acquired Times Internet-backed JiffStore as it secured a $4m extension for its own, corporate-backed series B round.
Meituan-Dianping groups together backers for $2.8bn
The newly merged group buying company, named China Internet Plus Group, has raised $2.8bn from backers including Tencent at an $18bn post-money valuation.
Access Industries punches out $10m for Songkick
The ticketing platform has now raised $43m in total, after Access followed up a contribution to a $16m round in June by investing a further $10m.
Financial
The digital banking services provider has so far raised more than $5m from backers such as Gree and Beenos.
AXA Strategic Ventures confirms four investments
The insurer’s corporate venturing subsidiary has funded Bee, CoPromote, PriceMethod and GoldBean in the second half of 2015.
NextCapital looks ahead with $16m
The financial planning technology developer has followed a Transamerica-backed round last year with $16m of series B funding.
Clean-Tech
The solar energy system installer has raised $50m in a GE Ventures-backed eqiuty round and an additional $600m in project finance.
Energy and Natural Resources
Tide comes in for Scotrenewables with $8.4m
Tidal power developer Scotrenewables has now secured about $35m in total, after DP Energy joined existing investors Total, ABB, Harland & Wolff and Fred.Olsen.
Industrial
Business Growth Fund’s investment will be used by construction and plant equipment supplier Hawk Group to expand its fleet.
Transport
Huitongda enters funding country with $77m
The rural-focused e-commerce logistics company has followed a series A round reportedly backed by Xiaomi with $77m of cash from investors including Huaxia Life Insurance.
Lyft receives $247m by royal decree
The ride hailing company, backed by Alibaba, Rakuten, Didi Kuaidi and Tencent, has raised $247.7m at a $4.92bn valuation, $104m of which was provided by Kingdom Holding.
Lyft to drive up latest round to $1bn
The ride sharing company has upped its funding target from $500m to $1bn, though it is unclear whether existing backers including Alibaba, Tencent, Didi Kuaidi and Rakuten will reinvest.
Delhivery looks to pack up $150m
The Times Internet-backed logistics company has so far raised $125m, and has begun talks with new investors for a round that would value it at $850m.
Youxinpai aims to drive away with $400m
Baidu is set to reinvest in used car marketplace China-based automotive marketplace Youxinpai, which has raised $430m in the last 15 months.
Services
Juesheng nurtures corporates for $31m series C
Publisher Tangel and IT training provider Tarena have contributed to a funding round for the online education platform, which claims to have 14 million users.
Gusto stays on Google Capital payroll to raise $50m
The Alphabet-backed payroll services provider formerly known as ZenPayroll has now raised more than $135m in overall funding and is valued at $1bn