Corporate venturing deal net: 9-13 July 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
Swisscom switches to external investors for $199m fund
Swisscom has committed about $50m with the Digital Transformation Fund sourcing the rest from institutional investors.
SoftBank’s Misra makes plans for $250m fund
Kabir Misra, managing partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, is raising up to $250m for a fund in which SoftBank will be anchor investor.
Startups to get Ironclad investments
Ironclad Brewery expects to invest between $25,000 and $50,000 in about eight startups a year through its newly formed unit.
Longzhu Capital logs $300m close
Meituan Dianping’s investment arm has raised $300m from a consortium featuring the corporate itself as well as Tencent and New Hope.
MTech meets corporates to raise $75m
CNA Financial, NN Group and an unnamed insurance provider have supplied $75m for MTech’s InsureTech fund, which has targeted a $150m close.
New Voices makes noise with $100m close
The fund, which emerged from Sundial and parent company Unilever, has closed at $100m and invested its first $30m in eight portfolio companies.
Health Enterprise Partners hits up corporates
The healthtech investment firm has closed a $188m third fund featuring several care providers and insurers as limited partners.
Exits
Box melts for Butter.ai acquisition
The workplace search startup had raised about $3m from investors including Slack before being acquired by Box.
Yahoo Japan cooks up $84m Dely deal
Yahoo Japan is paying $83.7m for a 45.6% stake in online recipe platform and portfolio company Dely, which has several other corporate backers.
Visterra accepts $430m invitation from Otsuka
Merck & Co is one of the investors set to exit antibody drug developer Visterra after Otsuka Pharmaceutical agreed to buy the company for $430m.
Qeeka Home floats in $137m IPO
Baidu remains the largest investor in the home renovation marketplace, which went public with a $748m market cap.
Thoma Bravo takes majority stake in Centrify
Thoma Bravo is set to pay an undisclosed amount for a majority stake in Samsung, Docomo and Fortinet-backed cybersecurity software provider Centrify.
AT&T to lift AlienVault in acquisition deal
Intel Capital and Teldat will exit the cybersecurity software provider in an acquisition by AT&T that is reportedly around the $600m mark.
Autodesk builds with Assemble Systems acquisition
Autodesk’s Forge Fund has exited construction industry collaboration platform Assemble Systems in a purchase by its parent company.
Medidata metes out $195m for Shyft Analytics
Clinical data analysis platform Shyft has agreed to a $195m purchase by investor Medidata that will also allow McKesson and UnitedHealth to exit.
Bytedance flirts with IPO at $45bn valuation
The SIG-backed digital media company is reportedly considering an initial public offering in its home country.
The JD.com, Xiaomi, InTime and SIG-backed personal finance product provider is set to price its shares at the bottom of the IPO’s range.
WeLab to experiment with public listing
The online lending marketplace, which counts Alibaba, Tom Group, Nan Fung, ING and Ule as investors, was previously reported to be targeting $500m.
Siemens gets Comfy as corporates exit
CBRE and corporate venturing units GV and M12 exited as Siemens bought Building Robotics, the developer of building environmental control app Comfy.
IT
ASR accesses $100m in series B round
IDG Capital and Wanrong Hongtu have supplied $100m for ASR Microelectronic, which reportedly received the same sum in an Alibaba-backed round last year.
DeepMap pinpoints corporates for funding talks
The high-definition mapping technology provider is in discussions for up to $60m of funding from Alibaba, Didi Chuxing and BAIC.
Binance discovers Oasis in $45m round
Cryptocurrency exchange platform Binance has invested in a first round for Oasis Labs, the creator of a blockchain-based cloud computing platform.
Trillium traps $11m in series A2 round
The in-vehicle cybersecurity technology provider welcomed Airbus, Deutsche Bahn, Tokyo Century and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital as new investors.
Unify Square shapes $10m series C
The Microsoft-backed communications software developer boosted its total funding to nearly $45m in a round led by PrimePulse.
Health
Compass finds way to $132m series A close
Alexandria Venture Investments and Biomed Realty Ventures were among the investors as the immunotherapy developer closed the round’s final tranche.
The healthcare data analytics software provider has now raised more than $31m in total, after BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners and Intel Capital reinvested.
CorWave collects BPIfrance funding
The blood pump developer raised $16.3m from public investment bank BPIfrance, following a Novo Seeds-backed round two years ago.
Corporates join Cue in $45m series B
Personal health diagnostics app developer Cue Health has closed a $45m round featuring Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC and Dentsu Ventures.
Antiva enters series C1 stage with $15m
EMS subsidiary Brace Pharma Capital returned to help HPV therapy developer Antiva Biosciences increase its overall funding to $57m.
Cerner invests $266m to find Essence
Essence Group Holdings, the owner of care services provider Lumeris, has formed a partnership with new strategic investor Cerner.
Dynacure rides funding wave to raise $55m
The biopharmaceutical company, which was co-founded by Ionis Pharmaceuticals, has secured funding in an Andera Partners-led round.
Analysis: Life sciences IPOs recovering
Initial public offerings of companies from the life sciences sector appear to be rebounding in number during the first half of 2018 and news stories on our web from the past couple weeks clearly attest to it.
Dysis Medical screens Lundbeck for $24m round
Colposcope developer Dysis has closed a series B round featuring existing investor Lundbeckfonden Ventures that will fund growth and R&D.
Media
Back4App, Getup Cloud, RankMayApp, DB1 and Social Miner have all received funding from Telefónica’s local accelerator.
Consumer
Movile mobilises Naspers to raise $124m
Naspers, which led Movile’s last round, in December, also led the mobile services platform’s latest, taking its total funding to $375m.
Aihuishou extracts $150m in funding
Existing investor JD.com returned for a Tiger Global-led round that valued the electronics recycler at more than $1.5bn.
Mediaset-backed social e-commerce platform 21Buttons took its total funding to about $31m in an Idinvest Partners-led series B round.
Financial
Tiger Brokers takes $80m in series C
The Xiaomi-backed digital brokerage closed the round at a valuation of more than $1bn and will spend the cash on hiring and R&D.
JD Finance gets $2bn funding transfer
JD.com’s financial services spinoff has raised at least $1.95bn at a reported $18bn valuation from backers including Bank of China and CICC.
Investors pay $115m tribute to Toast
T. Rowe Price Associates led a series D round that valued GV-backed point-of-sale system developer Toast at $1.4bn.
Binance helps invest $12m to grow Republic
Crowdfunded investment platform Republic has secured funding in a round co-led by Binance’s venture capital and incubator arm.
Energy and Natural Resources
Shell helps pump $7m to Salamander
Heating cable developer Salamander Solutions has raised series A cash from investors including Shell Ventures, 16 months after being spun out of Shell.
Telecoms
IAC-backed internet service provider Starry has raised $100m in funding, nearly double its target for the round.
Industrial
Sensyn settles funding with Itochu
Itochu Technology Ventures was among the investors in a $10.8m round closed as the drone technology developer rebranded from V-Cube.
Transport
Pony.ai picks up pace with $102m
The autonomous driving technology developer has added $102m to a series A round backed by Comcast and Legend Holdings that now totals $214m.
Big Deal: Corporates take a slice of Lime
The electric scooter and bike rental service has raised $335m in a GV-led round that included Uber, indicating the frenetic growth of the sector this year.
Xiaopeng aproaches Alibaba for new funding
Alibaba, which co-led the electric vehicle developer’s last round in January, could invest in a $600m to $700m round at a near $4bn valuation.
Services
Cainiao and 58 Daojia both contributed to the first round closed by the delivery services marketplace since its merger with 58 Suyun last year.
Convene moves $152m into its account
Property developers QuadReal, Brookfield, RXR and The Durst Organization helped supply series D funding for the workspace provider.
Lionbridge links with corporates for $150m
Baidu and Sunshine Insurance have supplied $150m in funding to Lionbridge, a week after Baidu announced a collaboration deal with the leasing service.
Cainiao carries $290m to Dianwoda
Cainiao Networks has taken a controlling stake in the logistics service provider, which already counted Cainiao parent Alibaba as an investor.
Tencent and Bertelsmann Asia Investments have returned for the online fitness class provider’s series D round, boosting its total funding to $187m.
Corporates help Zhuge move to series B stage
Fosun RZ Capital and Shanghai Resource Property Consulting have taken part in a $22.6m round for property search platform Zhuge.