Weekly corporate venturing deal net: 2-6 February 2015
Each Friday the Global Corporate Venturing Deal Net rounds up the week’s smaller deals and tracks the emerging companies accessing corporate funds.
Big Deal: Rocket Internet invests $568m in Delivery Hero
Rocket Internet has taken a 30% share in Delivery Hero and a majority stake in HelloFresh, while consolidating all its food delivery platforms into a single entity.
Big Deal: Ele.me orders in $350m
The food ordering app looks likely to help leverage the resources of investors Dianping, Tencent and JD as it looks to become the market leader in China.
Fundraising
Han’s Laser Technology points to $160m fund
Established jointly with state-owned Guosen Securities, the $160m Han’s-backed fund will invest in the robotics and artificial intelligence sectors.
BP and Masdar form sustainability technology accelerator
The petroleum producer’s corporate venturing unit will partner with local university Masdar to fund energy and water technology startups.
Pfizer joins Indian healthcare initiative StartHealth
StartHealth will invest an initial $1.6m in startups developing healthcare technology that can benefit lower income patients.
Alibaba sets up $129m Hong Kong fund
The e-commerce company has set up a $129m non-profit organisation that will fund startups based on its e-commerce ecosystem.
Teva and Philips form $25m incubator
The corporates will invest the money in medical device technology companies graduating from the incubator over an eight-year period.
People
Saunders to evangelise for Microsoft Ventures
Former Blackberry vice-president Alec Saunders has rejoined Microsoft to promote its corporate venturing unit, Microsoft Ventures.
Exits
Hootsuite targets IPO in next two years
The Hearst-backed social media tools developer has raised $250m to date, but could wait another two years before looking to go public.
IDG exits Manthan in $60m series D
IDG had invested in series A and B rounds raised by Manthan, which will use the funding to expand its business analytics products to international markets.
Genetic testing company Invitae sets IPO range
Genomic Health-backed Invitae, which is developing a new genetic testing system, would raise more than $80m if it floats at the top of its range.
Spark triggers $161m flotation
The pharmaceutical company, which is developing treatments for retinal conditions, is set to float above its range.
Izea buys freelance journalism marketplace Ebyline
Freelance journalists marketplace Ebyline, which had raised $6.5m from media company EW Scripps, has been acquired by Izea for almost $9m.
IT
Salesforce joined the company’s existing investors for an $18m round that increased SteelBrick’s total funding to approximately $30m.
Sauce Labs serves up $15m series D
Salesforce-backed application testing tool provider Sauce Labs has attracted funding from existing investor Toba Capital taking its overall funding to $24m.
Zoom snaps up Qualcomm for $30m series C
Video conferencing service Zoom has secured $30m in a series C round featuring returning investor Qualcomm, and which lifted its overall funding to more than to $45m.
Renren votes yes to FiscalNote
FiscalNote, which uses big data to track legislators’ voting habits, has received $10m from Renren, taking its total funding to more than $18m.
Apttus sells $41m series B to investors
Contract managing service Apttus has raised a $41m series B round led by Salesforce.com, increasing its total funding to $78m.
Health
MedImmune helps transplant $33m into G1
G1 Therapeutics has completed a MedImmune-backed series B round to fund development of its drug protecting bone marrow in cancer patients.
AuraSense extends series C to $18m
AbbVie and Abbott-backed biotechnology developer AuraSense closed the $13.6m firs tranche of the round in June last year.
Lysosomal generates $20m in corporate-backed series A
Lysosomal has raised $20m in a round backed by pharmaceutical firms Roche, Eli Lilly and Sanofi, all of which also contributed to its $4.8m seed round.
Contract research company SNBL has backed an $18m series A round for Wave Life Sciences, which focuses on engineering precise molecular structures for drug development.
BioNano expands series C to $68m
The genome mapping company has increased the size of a Novartis and Legend-backed round, which first closed in November, by more than $15m.
Media
Culture Machine ramps up with $18m
Online video tools provider Culture Machine has raised $18m in a Times Internet-backed series B round that came just five months after its series A.
The mobile games developer has closed a round featuring corporate-backed fund B Dash, and financial services firms Shinsei and Sumitomo Mitsui.
Taboola discovers corporates for $117m series E
The content discovery company has now raised almost $160m in total, after securing Comcast, Yahoo Japan, Groupe Arnault and Advance Publications as new investors.
Content monetisation company Skimlinks raises $16m
Bertelsmann returned to invest in the content monetisation platform developer’s series C round, which increased its total equity funding to $24m.
MiTú broadcasts extension to series B round
US television network AMC has participated in a $5m extension to a round that initially closed at $10m in June last year.
Consumer
11street to spin out Malaysian business
Online marketplace 11street is set to spin out a Malaysia-focused website with a $10m investment.
Simon dresses $8.8m round for Le Tote
Google-backed fashion rental service Le Tote has closed a series A round featuring property group Simon that took its overall funding to $12.5m.
Emtek joins market for Bukalapak series B
E-commerce marketplace Bukalapak has raised an undisclosed amount from Emtek, which joins fellow corporates Gree and Aucfan as an investor in the company.
IDG nurtures $26m series D for FirstCry
IDG Ventures India returned to reinvest in the babycare retailer, which has increased its overall funding to $59m.
Ichuanyi stays fashionable with series B
Online women’s fashion retailer Ichuanyi has secured $10m from investors including e-commerce company JD.com.
Fashion Project tries on Simon for series A
Online clothing donation service Fashion Project has secured $7.2m in a series A round backed by Simon Property and Second Time Around.
Depop shops around for $8m series A
The social shopping company has now raised more than $10m in total, as it seeks to expand from Europe into the US market.
Financial
Alipay takes 25% stake in One97
Alipay, the payment services affiliate of Alibaba, paid a reported $500m for the stake, an investment likely to clear the path for an initial public offering.
Alternative lending platform SoFi raises $200m
Renren-backed SoFi has now raised almost $360m from its last three equity rounds, and will look to expand its loans service throughout the US.
Online finance platform Lantouzi secures $21m
Bertelsmann participated in the series A round, which was also backed by Ceyaun Ventures and Source Code Capital.
Plastics trading platform Zhaosuliao raises $20m
The IDG-backed series A round will be used to expand Zhaosuliao’s reach across its home country of China.
Utilities
Tendril to grow with GDF Suez funding
The energy company has invested $7.2m in Tendril, increasing the energy services management company’s total funding to more than $185m.
Transport
Qualcomm takes a ride on 99Taxi
The wireless technology company has invested in Latin American taxi hailing app 99Taxi for a second time, in a round led by Tiger Global.
Services
HourlyNerd finds right time for series B
GE led the $7.8m round, which boosted the online consultancy marketplace’s funding to about $12.6m since it was founded in 2013.
51tour books Legend-backed series B
The China-based tour operator has received a second investment by Legend’s corporate venturing unit as part of a series B round.
AnyPerk to benefit from $8.5m series A
The Digital Garage and CyberAgent-backed employee perks platform will use the funding to develop a notification app for its service.