Corporate venturing deal net: 6-10 August 2018
Each Friday the Global Corporate Venturing Deal Net rounds up the week’s smaller deals and tracks the emerging companies accessing corporate funds.
Fundraising
Financial services provider SBI has partnered private equity firm OSK Ventures on a Southeast Asia-focused fund with an initial $20m commitment.
Splice to spit out $1m through media fund
Digital media company and journalism organisation Civil plan to help launch 100 Asia-based media startups in the next three years.
SoftBank eyes India with $5bn Asia fund
The corporate plans to begin talking to prospective investors next month for a fund that will invest half its capital in India.
THG to try out corporate venturing
The diversified conglomerate intends to invest between $50m in areas such as energy, infrastructure, materials and environmental services each year.
M12 lays path for female founders
Microsoft’s corporate venturing unit has joined EQT Ventures and SVB Financial Group to form a contest that will invest $4m in two female-led startups.
People
Faisal Rehman has become the latest ex-Deutsche Bank executive to join SoftBank Vision Fund, where he will head Middle Eastern investments.
Pivotal BioVenture Partners prises Preston from TPG
Heather Preston, formerly managing director at TPG Biotech, has taken a managing partner position at Nan Fung-backed Pivotal BioVenture Partners.
Exits
Koubei and Ele.me consider big-money merger
Alibaba spinoff Koubei could merge with another subsidiary, Ele.me, as SoftBank Vision Fund enters talks to lead a round of up to $5bn.
WPP and UTA are exiting digital media company Uproxx Media, which had raised some $42m in funding, in an acquisition by Warner Music Group.
Falabella falls for Linio in $138m acquisition
E-commerce marketplace Linio had raised $230m from investors including Tengelmann, Access Industries and Rocket Internet.
SatoshiPay to sate public markets appetite
The Axel Springer-backed nanotransaction processor will execute a reverse merger with another investor, London-listed Blue Sky Capital.
IT
Test.AI gets $11m result in series A
Google’s Gradient Ventures led a round that boosted the total raised by app testing technology developer Test.ai to $18m.
Rigetti reveals $50m in funding
The Bloomberg Beta-backed quantum computing system developer said it raised the cash late last year, boosting its total funding to $119m.
RiskRecon locates $25m in series B round
Dell Technologies Capital has reinvested in the third-party cyber risk assessment platform having led its series A round last year.
Slack puts $400m round on the slate
The Alphabet, SoftBank and Comcast-backed communications platform developer is reportedly set to close a General Atlantic-led round at a $7bn valuation.
Skyworks fires up $405m Avnera acquisition
Best Buy, Panasonic, Intel, Polycom and Onkyo are all set to exit chipmaker Avnera, which had raised almost $77m in funding.
Tianrang tees up $26m series A
Retail analytics technology developer Tianrang has picked up $26m in series A funding from a consortium that included fintech producer Wacai.
SEB subsidiary SEB Venture Capital contributed to a $12.7m round for the software performance-monitoring technology developer, which has raised $35m in total.
Tencent helps supply almost $50m for Suiyuan
The corporate has led a $49.8m pre-series A round for Suiyuan Technology, which will use the proceeds for research and development.
Corporates open Moviebook with $199m
SenseTime and the SoftBank-backed SBCVC co-led the online advertising technology developer’s series D round, which included Oriental Pearl.
Quantexa hits up HSBC in $20m round
HSBC, which co-led the data analysis platform’s series A round last year, has returned to invest in the company’s series B.
Cisco drives Dremio’s series B to $30m
The networking technology provider has added $5m to the data sourcing software provider’s latest round, taking its overall funding to $45m.
Bloomberg helps serve up $14m for Survata
The advertising measurement platform has raised series B funding, with Bloomberg Beta making its second investment.
DefinedCrowd absorbs series A investors
The AI testing data platform secured $11.8m in an Evolution Equity Partners-led round that included Mastercard, EDP, Sony and Amazon Alexa Fund.
Health
Akili accepts extra funding for $68m round
The digital therapy developer added $13m from backers including Digital Garage to a series C round already featuring Amgen and Merck Group.
Tot Biopharm adds $102m in funding
Formosa Laboratories-backed cancer treatment developer Tot Biopharm has raised $102m in series B capital from a range of institutional investors.
Illumina, GV and Orient Life supported a $72m series C for SQZ Biotechnology, which will use the money to fund therapies for solid tumours and autoimmunity.
Walmart put up $320m of the cash for grocery delivery service Dada-JD Daojia while the rest came from another existing investor, JD.com.
Artios attracts $83m in series B funding
The oversubscribed round included Pfizer, Novartis, Merck Group and AbbVie, and boosted the cancer drug developer’s overall funding to $120m.
Akouos aces series A with $50m
Novartis Venture Fund and Partners Innovation Fund both took part in a round that will fund the first human trials for the company’s gene therapies.
Impact forms $30m series C round
Impact Therapeutics will invest the cash from the Lilly Asia Ventures-backed round to further develop its lead cancer treatment candidate.
Corporates help treat MDLive to $50m
Cigna, HCSC and Novo have taken part in a $50m funding round for MDLive, a telehealth platform already backed by Sentara and Sutter Health.
Evidation escalates fundraising with $30m
Corporate VC units GE Ventures and Sanofi Ventures both invested to help the health behaviour tracker take its funding to $61m altogether.
Karuna tunes into $42m series A
The psychiatric and cognitive disorder drug developer secured the financing in a round backed by its founder, PureTech Health.
Media
IDG Capital and Huiying Borun have invested in Xinai Sport Media Technology, a joint venture launched by iQiyi and Super Sports Media this week.
NewTV broadcasts confirmation of $1bn in funding
Alibaba, Liberty Global and 10 entertainment groups were among the investors in the short-form original video platform.
Bytedance tries for $3bn at $75bn valuation
The SIG-backed online media company is reportedly seeking a $70bn to $75bn valuation on the way to a 2019 initial public offering.
Weimob winds up for Hong Kong IPO
The social media marketing platform is backed by HNA, Jinzi Ham and Tencent, and has reportedly raised almost $210m.
Consumer
Naspers invested the first $150m of the cash this summer, it revealed, and has pledged another $350m to bring the e-commerce platform’s total funding to $975m.
Dada-JD Daojia gets $500m from shopping trip
Walmart put up $320m of the cash for grocery delivery service Dada-JD Daojia while the rest came from another existing investor, JD.com.
Financial
Freee accounts for $60m series E
The accounting software developer added Line, Mitsubishi UFJ and Life Card to a roster of shareholders that already included Salesforce, Sharp, Recruit and SBI.
The real estate value assessment startup raised the capital in a JLL Spark-backed series A round just four months after closing seed funding.
Barclays comes back to Cloud9 in $19m round
Barclays led the voice-based trader communication platform’s series B round, investing with fellow long-term backers NEX and JP Morgan.
BlueVine bolsters series E to $72m
Corporate venturing units M12 and Nationwide Ventures added $12m to small business finance provider BlueVine’s series E round.
TransferMate finds a friend in ING
ING is supplying $24.5m in funding for cross-border payment platform TransferMate, nine months after a $35m investment by fellow bank AIB.
Dianrong digs up $40m from DFIIG
DFIIG invested in Dianrong having formed a strategic partnership with the Orix and Standard Chartered-backed online lending platform in January.
Salesforce helps pay out $15m to RaiseMe
The higher education micro-scholarship provider has now raised more than $31m altogether, securing capital in a Salesforce Ventures-backed round.
Industrial
NEA forges $15m investment in Formlabs
Autodesk-backed 3D printing technology developer Formlabs took its total funding to $100m with a New Enterprise Associates investment that valued it at more than $1bn.
Terran Orbital reaches new heights with $36m
The small-scale satellite builder has completed a series B round featuring existing investor Lockheed Martin Ventures.
Everbright Photonics shines a light on $22m series B
The Up Optotech-backed diode laser technology developer raised the cash from investors including SDIC and Suzhou Chengxin Venture Capital.
Transport
Temasek takes a $225m stake in Ola
Temasek has bought a sub-10% stake in Tencent, SoftBank and Didi Chuxing-backed ride hailing platform Ola in a secondary transaction.
Shell Ventures finds Ample reason to invest
EV charging technology startup Ample has secured $31m in a Shell Ventures-led series A round that included Repsol Energy Ventures.
RideOS brings corporates on board to raise $25m
Siemens’ Next47 led the ride hailing management platform’s series B round, which included corporate venturing unit ST Engineering Ventures.
Amazon Alexa Fund and Dentsu Ventures co-led a round that also featured existing investor Times Internet.
Services
SoftBank goes to WeWork with another $1bn
The co-working space provider has secured $1bn in convertible note financing from long-term investor SoftBank despite heavy 2018 losses.
Zhihu confirms $270m series E round
The Tencent-backed online Q+A platform was originally reported to have raised $300m in the round last month.
Manbang makes tracks en route to $1bn
The trucking services provider, which counts Alphabet, Tencent and SoftBank among its backers, is pursuing a $10bn valuation.
Shadowfax gets $22m series C delivery
NGP Capital led a series C round for the on-demand delivery services provider that included Qualcomm Ventures, taking its total funding to about $41m.
Namely spells out $60m series E round
The Vayner/RSE-backed human resources software provider has now raised a total of approximately $200m.