Weekly corporate venturing deal net 6 – 10 June 2016
Each Friday the Global Corporate Venturing Deal Net rounds up the week’s smaller deals and tracks the emerging companies accessing corporate funds.
Europe surveys corporate-startup engagement
OpenAxel warned: “Too many respondents admitted that they have started CSE without attentive strategic planning of performance indicators (57%), and without the involvement of their leaders (46%). For almost half (48%) of European corporations, CSE still appears to be a quick-fix of innovation needs, rather than a long-term solution to strategy problems.”
Analysis: Corporate lead route to exit
Exits with corporate investor involvement are consistently larger and becoming more frequent.
Fundraising
Netherlands-based corporations form local networking group
KPN, Shell, Philips, Akzo Nobel, Port of Rotterdam, Eneco, ING, KLM, DSM and Thales Nederland are sharing their “best and worst practices” at CoSta (corporate-startups).
Salesforce cooks up $50m storm
Salesforce has revealed a new investment vehicle, named Lightning Fund, and incubator that will focus on early-stage cloud startups.
Merck commitment to ventures doubles
Germany-based drugs group Merck Ventures now manages $340m.
Microsoft Accelerator partners Temasek
Six Temasek portfolio companies have joined with Microsoft’s startup accelerator program across four locations in Seattle, Berlin, Tel Aviv and Bangalore.
People
Alex McCracken, managing director who had covered VC relations, has stepped up at SVB to help the bank lend about $100m from its new Ireland office, as well as building its startup banking services in Europe more broadly.
Julia Rebholz has joined Corporate Impact-X (CIX), which published a report at the Global Corporate Venturing Symposium last month on practical ways for corporations to follow the Ignite fund set up by UK-based energy utility Centrica.
Cisco’s spin-in team walks out
The company’s four-person team, which was set up to fund and acquire startups working on networking products, has resigned.
Exits
Qualcomm-backed Fiksu joins ClickDealer sphere
Fiksu’s mobile app marketing technology will sit alongside Noosphere subsidiary ClickDealer’s existing suite of advertising tools.
Intel sends final farewell to Intrasoft
Intel Capital first sold half its stake in Intrasoft last month and has now exited the remaining 5.3% stake.
OpenText decides on $163m Recommind acquisition
OpenText is set to acquire Recommind for $163m, giving an exit to SAP-backed Sapphire Ventures.
The initial public offering on Aim will provide an exit to shareholders including Novartis, which gave Mereo access to three of its clinical stage therapies last year.
The RFID technology developer, backed by investors such as UPS and Intel, has filed for a $60m IPO after previously withdrawing a $100m offering in 2012.
Netbay casts IPO net with $4.5m target
Internet Thailand intends to keep its 25% stake in the Thailand-based back-office services provider.
Monster’s acquisition of Jobr provides an exit to the corporate venturing arm of human resources software provider Workday.
Smaato advertises $148m acquisition
Spearhead Integrated Marketing Communication has agreed to buy Smaato for $148m two years after the mobile advertising company raised series E funding from Singapore Press.
Naver-owned messaging platform Line is set to sell 13 million shares in Japan and 22 million shares in the US priced at $26.30 each for a dual listing.
IT
The data analytics firm has landed its first strategic investment in a potentially record deal for Southeast Asia.
Corporates help Moogsoft manage $30m series C
Singtel, Cisco and HCL Technologies have contributed to an oversubscribed series C round that also included Temasek-owned Singapore Technologies Telemedia.
Movvo captures $6.2m in series A
Two Portuguese corporates, Caixa and Sonae, have joined forces to support the retail analytics startup.
Instana receives $6m green light
Custom software development business Codecentric invests further in its spinout to help it move beyond big data analytics and monitoring.
Midokura visualises $20.4m series B
Simplex and Innovation Network Corporation of Japan have provided funding for Midokura, a software network virtualisation technology producer already backed by NTT Docomo.
Microsoft helps arrange Crowdflower investment
Microsoft Ventures has contributed to Crowdflower’s latest round, making its second investment since becoming a full-fledged corporate venturing division.
Zimperium commands $25m series C
Telstra was among the returning equity holders in Zimperium’s series C round that was led by new investor Warburg Pincus.
Weka.io reveals $32m in funding
Software-defined storage technology developer Weka.io has attracted series B capital from investors including Qualcomm, boosting its total funding to date to $32m.
Comfy relaxes with $12m series B
Microsoft Ventures adds a third company to its portfolio following the launch of its corporate venturing activities.
Amplitude turns up funding by $15m
Tencent-backed mobile analytics provider Amplitude’s latest backing comes from a consortium of VC firms.
Dell, TenEleven and Capital One-backed Cylance now has $177m in its coffers following a series D round co-led by Blackstone and Insight Venture Partners.
OATV’s portfolio company Qadium receives funding from several VC backers to develop its internet knowledge-gathering technology.
Health
Corporates inject $19m into Applied StemCell
Asia-based corporates Ping An, Fosun Pharmaceutical and SK Group have participated in a series D round for the biotechnology company.
Corporates devote $10.4m to Biovotion
Biovotion has secured a first close for its series A round, backed by Swiss Re and STMicroelectronics.
Jiff soaks up $17.7m extension
GE-backed healthcare IT company Jiff has secured an additional $17.7m for its series C round, which achieved a first close at $23.5m in May last year.
Investors assist RetraceHealth in $6.5m round
The concierge care provider previously raised money from healthcare corporates to extend its reach in Minnesota and other regions.
Omicia befriends corporates for $23m
Clinical genome interpretation technology producer Omicia has secured capital from investors including Roche, Ping An and UPMC to accelerate product development.
Media
Marketing technology developer Signal has received support from several loyal backers including Silicon Valley Bank.
Liberty Global and You on Demand have backed cloud-based video service provider Frequency to support its global expansion.
Corporates brighten up SundaySky series D
Comcast and NTT Docomo have both contributed to a $30m series D round that more than doubled video engagement platform SundaySky’s total funding to $67m.
Consumer
BCCL to put Flipkart stake in its basket
Flipkart is reportedly in talks to sell a stake to media conglomerate Bennett, Coleman and Co.
Primary starts series A education
Grace Beauty is among the backers of an $8m series A round for the children’s clothing company.
Axiata joins the land of StoreKing backers
StoreKing, an e-commerce company focused on rural customers, has obtained $16m from Axiata.
Financial
Cloudability accounts for $24m
Wieden + Kennedy-backed Cloudability has pushed its total capital to $40m following a series B round led by Foundry Select Fund.
Convercent complies with $11m series C
Sapphire Ventures has returned to back an $11m series C round for Convercent, after previously leading a $10m series B round in 2013.
Tradeshift checks series D investors
HSBC and American Express have taken part in a $75m funding round in Tradeshift, which previously received cash from PayPal and Intuit.
Comcast serves cash to Bento for Business
Comcast Ventures has led a $7m series A round for the employee expense management platform.
Transport
Kibo helps ship $6.7m to iContainers
The online freight service provider has attracted repeat investment in its latest funding round as it plans global expansion.
Services
Glassdoor welcomes $40m investment
Google Capital, which participated in a $70m series F round in January last year, is among the investors who returned for a $40m funding round led by T Rowe Price Associates.
Helpshift moves $23m into series B
Microsoft, Salesforce and Intel have invested in Helpshift, marking the first time the three corporates have supplied capital for a startup at once.