Corporate venturing deal net: 10-14 December 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
Shea helps Calibrate summon $80m first fund
Two former managing directors of Shea Ventures have raised $80m from limited partners including JF Shea for Calibrate’s inaugural fund.
HubSpot finds room for $30m fund
The indoor farming specialist intends to expand rapidly in 2019 after raising $90m in a round led by existing investor GV.
L’Oréal shows corporate venturing is worth it
Cosmetic brand L’Oréal’s Bold Business Opportunities for L’Oréal Development has already made its first investment, in online fragrance creator Sillages Paris.
Constellation to pour $100m into female-led startups
Alcoholic beverage producer Constellation Brands plans to provide $100m for female-led companies through its newly formed Focus on Female Founders initiative.
Constellation to pour $100m into female-led startups
Alcoholic beverage producer Constellation Brands plans to provide $100m for female-led companies through its newly formed Focus on Female Founders initiative.
Bytedance takes a turn at corporate venturing
The digital media company is putting together a $1.44bn fund in which it will provide 20% of the capital, targeting state-owned vehicles for the rest.
People
Zhong leaves Next47 for CR Capital
Next47 associate Rachel Zhong has taken a position at CR Capital, which manages a $16bn fund on behalf of conglomerate China Resources Group.
SoftBank bolsters Vision Fund with new hires
SoftBank Vision Fund has hired Kirthiga Reddy as a Silicon Valley-based venture partner and Carolina Brochado for its London office.
Bill Qian, JD Finance’s head of cross-border M&A, was promoted to general manager of corporate ventures in July.
Itxaso del Palacio has left her partner position at M12 in order to become an investment director at venture firm Notion Capital.
Exits
GV-backed Basis loses its balance
Stablecoin developer Basis is shutting down after facing regulatory issues and will return most of the $133m it raised from investors including GV in April.
Cisco lines up nine-figure Luxtera acquisition
Cisco has reportedly outbid others and is set to buy Tokyo Electron-backed semiconductor technology developer Luxtera for hundreds of millions of dollars.
Airbnb and Slack consider direct listing
Airbnb and Slack are considering following in the footsteps of Spotify by exploring a direct listing rather than going the traditional route through Wall Street.
HomeToGo has acquired Recruit-backed holiday home rental platform Tripping for an undisclosed sum, while also raising an amount likely to be about $120m.
Blippar slips toward insolvency
Kazanah Nasional is reportedly blocking emergency funding for the Qualcomm-backed AR technology developer, which has raised some $137m while trying to locate a sustainable business model.
AstraZeneca, Merck & Co and Alexion all scored exits as mRNA therapy developer Moderna floated in the largest biotech IPO of all time.
Tencent, Ping An and Bertelsmann-backed e-commerce platform Mogu has floated on the New York Stock Exchange in a $66.5m initial public offering.
Uber and Slack slide closer to IPO
Uber has confidentially filed for an initial public offering while Slack has hired Goldman Sachs to lead its own IPO at a purported $10bn valuation.
M17 makes $25m to beat IPO blues
M17 Entertainment, backed by MCN, Yahoo Japan and LeSports, has collected $25m after a failed attempt at an IPO earlier this year.
IT
InVision gets $115m series F infusion
Atlassian contributed to the round as part of a previously announced strategic agreement with InVision to integrate each other’s technologies into their respective products.
Megvii makes for $500m in new funding
The facial and body recognition software developer is lining up a round that would value it at between $3.5bn and $4bn, with existing backer Alibaba a possible investor.
Emotibot computes $30m series B
Ecovacs Robotics invested in the emotion-recognition technology developer as part of a series B round, participating as an existing backer.
Kozo Keikaku Engineering and BayBG were among the investors in a round that took the indoor mapping technology developer’s total funding past $45m.
WaveOptics makes a splash with $26m
Robert Bosch Venture Capital reinvested in the augmented reality technology developer as part of a round that valued it at $96m.
Abeja adds another corporate to series C round
The retail technology provider has received an undisclosed amount of funding from Google, boosting a series C round sized at $38.3m as of July.
Goldman Sachs has invested $20m in a series D round for the software development technology provider that already included GV.
The Xiaomi and Ping An-backed toy maker has completed a $14.6m funding round led by venture capital firm Volcanics Venture.
Health
Corporates help complete Mission Bio’s series B round
Agilent and Lam Research participated in a $30m round for UCSF’s DNA analysis spinout, Mission Bio, whose existing shareholders include Stanford-StartX Fund.
Genomics gees up series B round
Drug discovery technology provider Genomics has closed a second tranche of its oversubscribed series B round to increase its size to $41.7m.
Kallyope carries series B round to $87m
The gut-brain therapy developer has closed a $21m extension to its series B round backed by Illumina and Alexandria Real Estate Equities.
Media
Niantic looks to catch another $200m
Just over a year after its $200m series B round, Pokémon Go developer Niantic is raising another $200m from investors including Samsung and Axiomatic Gaming.
Consumer
Aria Systems organises $30m equity payment
Dell-backed cloud billing service Aria Systems has now raised $180m altogether, securing $30m from Runway Capital and its existing investors.
Farfetch runs to $250m Stadium Goods acquisition
The fashion e-commerce platform has agreed to buy Stadium Goods less than two years after its $4.6m series A round, handing exits to LMVH and Chernin Group.
Tokopedia tops up latest round to $1.1bn
SoftBank Vision Fund and Alibaba have co-led a $1.1bn round for the e-commerce marketplace that also featured Softbank Ventures Korea.
Green Rice cooks up series B-plus funding
The smart device developer, which counts SEB and Xiaomi as backers, has raised tens of millions of dollars in its third funding round this year.
Meiri Yitao produces $100m series B
The fruit and vegetable-focused social commerce platform was incubated by MissFresh and has just raised $100m in an SIG-backed round.
The NewSpring-led round took the B2B e-commerce platform’s funding to$40m to date, from investors that include Novel Group and Creative Artists Agency.
Happiest Baby rests with $23m series B
GV was among the participants in a series B round that boosted the artificial intelligence-equipped bassinet developer’s total funding to $33m.
Financial
Plaid prises $250m from investors
The GV-backed financial software technology provider raised series C funding in a Kleiner Perkins-led round that valued it at $2.65bn.
Corporates help ShopKeep round up $65m
The fintech platform has raised equity financing from backers including First Data and Salesforce Ventures while Orix and Pacific Western Bank provided debt.
Corporates help ShopKeep round up $65m
The fintech platform has raised equity financing from backers including First Data and Salesforce Ventures while Orix and Pacific Western Bank provided debt.
Viva Republica gets $80m funding transfer
Novel and existing investors PayPal and Qualcomm Ventures all contributed to a round for Toss owner Viva Republica that valued it at $1.2bn.
Energy and Natural Resources
The indoor farming specialist intends to expand rapidly in 2019 after raising $90m in a round led by existing investor GV.
Industrial
Ninjacart produces series B funding
Qualcomm Ventures, Syngenta Ventures and NeoPlux all contributed to a $34.7m round that took the farm-to-restaurant food sourcing platform’s equity funding to more than $48m.
Axelspace explores series B round
Mitsui and Dai-ichi Life have backed a $22.9m investment round led by 31Ventures Global Innovation Fund that will fund the launch of Axelspace’s latest satellite.
Telexistence reaches out to corporates in series A
KDDI, Airbus, Global Logistic Properties, JTB and Maeda Industry all chipped in as the experiential robotics startup raised an undisclosed amount.
Transport
Grab revs up $150m Yamaha investment
Grab has increased its latest round to $2.85bn with a $150m investment by its latest strategic partner, Yamaha Motor.
AutoNation goes Vroom in $146m series G
The car retailer invested $50m to lead Vroom’s series G round, becoming its first corporate backer and helping increase the online car retailer’s total funding to $440m.
ParkJockey packs in funding at unicorn valuation
Parking technology and services provider ParkJockey has received an undisclosed amount from SoftBank at a reported billion-dollar valuation.
G7 tracks corporates to raise $320m
The fleet monitoring software provider’s latest round, concluded in October but only revealed now, featured Total Energy Ventures, Tencent, GLP and Bank of China.
Services
Nichirei Corp led Licious’ series D round, three months after the online meat and fish delivery service raised $25m in a separate round led by Bertelsmann.
Byju’s nets Naspers on its way to $400m
Naspers Ventures is leading a funding round for Byju’s already sized at $322m, with a $400m target, that is valuing the online learning platform at $3.6bn.
Corporates help EdCast curate fresh funding
The AI-based contextual insight service has closed a $33.6m round that included SoftBank, Relx and Crescent Enterprises, taking its total funding to almost $56m.