Weekly corporate venturing deal net: 8-12 June 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: SoftBank invests $1bn in Coupang
SoftBank took a 20% stake in the Korea-based e-commerce company, as part of a long term strategy that could see it become the world’s largest e-commerce player.
Fundraising
Insurers arrive at $500m Shoreline fund
A range of unnamed corporates from the insurance sector have backed Shoreline Capital’s third fund, which has closed at $500m.
Intel Capital launches $125m Diversity Fund
Lisa Lambert revealed a $125m fund yesterday that will invest in startups run by women and minorities.
Equity crowdfunding platform OurCrowd has launched a $10m fund targeting seed-stage companies.
Exits
Razer entertains idea of Ouya acquisition
Games console maker Ouya, backed by Nvidia and Alibaba, could be acquired by Razer for an undisclosed amount.
IT
Google helps teach Duolingo series D
Language learning app developer Duolingo has closed a $45m series D round featuring internet company Google.
Corporates want Evrything to have $7.5m
Cisco and Samsung are among the backers of a series B round for internet of things company Evrything.
Arcadia Data visualises $11.5m series A
The business intelligence platform developer raised the cash from backers including Intel, and will spend it on expanding its product, sales and marketing teams.
Illusive reveals $5m in series A funding
Corporate-backed incubator Team8 provided the series A funding for its first graduate, cybersecurity company Illusive Networks.
Verizon drums up SimplyTapp investment
Verizon Ventures has revealed an investment in payments processing service SimplyTapp, which recently raised $8.5m in its series B round.
Launched in February by former Google engineers, Cockroach Labs has attracted series A funding from investors including Google Ventures.
Plotly collaborates with Siemens for $5.5m series A
Siemens’ investment unit has backed a round that will give the data visualisation company the necessary funding to expand its engineering and sales staff.
Health
Johnson & Johnson increases number of collaborations
The pharmaceutical firm’s subsidiary Johnson & Johnson Innovation has established 17 new collaborations recently, boosting its total to more than 200.
Illumina shines a light on Twist’s $37m series C
Biotechnology company Illumina has led a series C round for the synthetic DNA manufacturer, and has been joined by Fidelity among other investors.
Seattle Genetics committed $5m to the round earlier this week when the two companies signed a partnership agreement.
Unum and Seattle Genetics sign cancer drug partnership
The two companies have signed a collaboration and license agreement worth up to $615m, with Seattle Genetics committing $25m upfront and another $5m in equity.
Corporates hurl Spero to $30m series A target
Spero will use the funding, raised from backers including Lunddbeck, Merck and GlaxoSmithKline, to advance its anti-infectives pipeline.
Media
Corporates nod at Yesware’s $13.3m series C
Google and IDG are among the backers of the sales platform’s latest funding round.
Watchville and Hodinkee time merger
The newly merged company has secured funding from investors including Google Ventures.
Sinclair dashes to ZypMedia’s series B
Sinclair Broadcast Group has led a $4.4m second funding round for the advertising company.
Spotify streams $526m series G
TeliaSonera is set to invest $115m in Spotify, as the music streaming service prepares to compete with Apple’s rival platform.
OATV helps Maker construct $5m round
Maker Media plans to use the O’Reilly Media-backed funding round to help build out its content.
Brandtone colours in $20.7m series D
Synegnta and Unilever returned to back the mobile marketing company’s latest round, which will fund an expansion in Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Consumer
A range of real-estate companies have contributed to the storage company’s series A funding.
Fidelity has contributed to a series C round for the e-cigarette manufacturer.
Norwest takes series A Personali
Wells Fargo-affiliated venture capital firm Norwest Venture Partners has led a $12m series A round for the personalised online shopping platform.
Fidelity has led a $135m series D round for the cooking ingredients delivery service.
Tile detects $3m series A extension
Khosla Ventures has provided an extension to the Tencent-backed location tracking device manufacturer’s series A round.
Norwest Venture Partners led the online food ordering service’s series B round, which will facilitate its expansion into additional Indian cities.
The online food ordering service, backed by Rocket Internet and Tengelmann, has increased its total funding to $1bn, after raising money at a $3.1bn valuation.
Blue Bottle fills up series C with $70m
Google has returned to back high-end coffee retailer Blue Bottle’s latest round, as the chain prepares to expand in the US and Japan.
Financial
Mitsui Sumitomo has invested $65m in internet services provider GMO to support the latter’s e-commerce payment service.
Groupon, BBVA, Tengelmann and American Express-backed mobile payments service SumUp has boosted its total funding to $45m.
Utilities
Energy utility company E.ON has agreed to acquire a stake in energy data analytics provider Enervee, which raised $3.7m in series A funding last month.
Transport
The ride-sharing app, which is backed by Baidu in China, now enables a million trips in the country as it prepares to expand into 50 cities.
GoGoVan moves $10m into series B
Logistics company GoGoVan has extended its Renren-backed series B by $10m, doubling the funding raised in the round.
Vinli picks up $6.5m in series A
Connected car platform developer Vinli has attracted series A funding from investors including Samsung, Cox Enterprises and Continental.
Services
PropertyGuru finds new mentors in $130m round
Deutsche Telekom exited the online property portal through the transaction, in which Emtek, TPG and Square Peg provided the money.