Corporate venturing deal net: 11 – 15 June 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
The new vehicle will invest in seed and series A-stage companies in the artificial intelligence sector, using capital from the $150m Samsung Next fund.
Bayer debates Monsanto Growth Ventures future
Bayer has acquired its peer Monsanto but is yet to decide if and how to integrate the latter’s corporate venturing division, Monsanto Growth Ventures.
PartnerRe and Exor launch $100m fund
Exor Seeds will invest in technology startups, with PartnerRe and Exor each providing half the capital for the fund.
Henkel has joined the limited partners of FirstMinute Capital’s inaugural fund, which previously attracted Tencent and Nan Fung for an $85m second close.
The payment processing firm has launched a $100m investment fund to invest in European fintech startups and created a fast-track onboarding program.
Sun Life Financial and La Capitale are among the limited partners in Luge Capital, a venture capital fund focused on the fintech sector.
Scor Global Life enters CVC space
Scor Life and Health Ventures will invest in the life insurance sector and has made its first deal by committing capital to health and wellness company iBeat.
People
Skoda drives into Workday Ventures
Brittany Skoda called time on nearly 10 years at Goldman Sachs to lead Workday’s CVC focus on emerging enterprise technologies including AI, machine learning and blockchain.
Exits
Uxin has set its pricing range at $10.50 to $12.50 per American Depositary Share, with Baidu, Legend Holdings and Tencent all in line to exit the used vehicle marketplace.
Bloom Energy to thrive in $100m IPO
Eon-backed fuel cell technology developer Bloom Energy was rumoured to be seeking an initial public offering in 2016 and has not made any funding announcements since then.
Workday picks up Adaptive Insights for $1.55bn
The acquisition comes less than a month after Adaptive Insights, whose shareholders include Salesforce, filed for a $100m initial public offering.
Workday has paid an undisclosed sum for talent development platform operator Rallyteam, previously backed by Cornerstone OnDemand and Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati.
Splunk conducts VictorOps acquisition
JF Shea-backed VictorOps agreed to acquisition by Splunk for approximately $120m in cash and stock.
Rakuten paves way for Curbside acquisition
The acquisition will provide an exit to investors including Qualcomm Ventures, CVS Health and O’Reilly Media, which had supplied more than $34m in funding to Curbside.
United, Mitsui, Itochu and GMO-backed e-commerce platform Mercari has priced its initial public offering at the top of its range and will raise up to $1.19bn in Tokyo this month.
Forty Seven, a GV-backed immuno-oncology spinout from Stanford University, has filed for a $115m initial public offering on Nasdaq just eight months after closing a $75m series B.
Kadmon-backed gene therapy developer MeiraGTx has gone public on Nasdaq after raising $75m in proceeds in its initial public offering.
Manabo passes Sundai acquisition test
Sundai’s IT services unit Satt has acquired Manabo, providing exits to investors including CyberAgent, Benesse and Zoshinkai.
IT
YugaByte stores $16m in its database
Dell Technologies Capital has co-led the funding round with Lightspeed Venture Partners.
Cohesity unites investors for $250m series D
SoftBank Vision Fund has led an oversubscribed series D round for Cohesity and was joined by fellow corporates Cisco, HPE and Qualcomm.
Claroty finds series B clarity
Rockwell Automation, Aster Capital and Next47 participated in a $60m series B round that brought Claroty’s total funding to date to $93m.
Kano opens Sesame Ventures for cash
Sesame Ventures has provided an undisclosed of funding that serves as an extension to Kano’s $28m series B round raised in November 2017.
Caresyntax structures $31.9m round
The amount represents a final close for Caresyntax’s first funding round and includes $11.9m provided by Norgine in September 2017.
Health
Yaoshibang prescribes $65.7m series C
Fosun-backed online pharmacy operator Yaoshibang has added Susquehanna International Group to its shareholders following a series C round raised over two tranches.
Mindstrong focuses on $15m series B
Optum Ventures-backed Mindstrong Health has raised its series B capital from a consortium of that also included new backers Bezos Expeditions and Decheng Capital.
Evolve BioSystems digests $40m series C
Tate and Lyle returned for the UC Davis spinout’s series C round and was joined by fellow corporates Johnson & Johnson, Continental Grain, Arla Foods and Campbell Soup.
StrideBio engineers $15.7m series A
The oversubscribed round has been backed by Takeda Ventures, UCB and Alexandria Venture Investments, and was led by Hatteras Venture Partners.
Propeller spins up more funding
McKesson Ventures has provided an extension of undisclosed size for Propeller Health’s $20m series D round raised last week.
Broncus diagnoses $15m series A
Intuitive Surgical has led a $15m series A round for medical device manufacturer Broncus.
Andrew Alliance bonds with series C investors
Tecan, Waters and Inpeco are among a group of investors that have invested $14m in robotics company Andrew Alliance.
Fresenius Medical Care will purchase a 19% stake in Humacyte, which closed a $75m series C round in March 2018.
Aivita gives life to $15m series B
SFC has supplied the full amount, which follows a $2m series A round in 2016 and will be used to expand Aivita’s cancer programs, product offering and headcount.
Precision BioSciences details $110m series B
Duke spinout Precision BioSciences, whose investors include Amgen and Baxter, has raised an initial $88m in series B funding out of a $110m target.
Oncologie detects $16.5m seed round
Pivotal BioVenture Partners China and Nan Fung Life Sciences itself have taken part in a $16.5m seed round in Oncologie as the startup launched operations in Shanghai and Boston.
Media
M17 Entertainment, backed by MCN, Yahoo Japan and LeSports, rang the opening bell on NYSE last week but never began trading.
Influential gains $12m series B
WME has contributed to a $12m series B round for Influential, which has now raised $26.5m.
Bluehole publishes $500m intentions
Tencent is exploring an investment in games publisher Bluehole in exchange for a 10% stake.
Amino personalises $45m series C
GV and Time Warner Investments have both returned for the series C round and were joined by new corporate investors Hearst Ventures.
Bad Robot collects corporates for gaming venture
Bad Robot Productions has joined Tencent and Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment to launch a video game venture that will utilise Bad Robot’s creative expertise and talent.
Consumer
Investors drop $12m into Sphero
The Walt Disney and JF Shea-backed toy robot maker has raised an initial $12m for a funding round it expects to close at $20m.
Valencell charges $10.5m series E
Best Buy-backed biometric sensor developer Valencell has secured a series E round led by Sonion, while existing shareholders such as Gii returned.
Paytm Mall reveals funding details
SoftBank and Alibaba have put in $227m as part of Paytm Mall’s previously announced $445m funding round.
Back Market opens series B stall
Groupe Arnault and Aglaé Ventures are among the investors in Back Market’s $48m series B round, which will support an expansion in North America.
Pharmapacks wraps up $32.5m deal
Reckitt Benckiser, McKesson, Sealed Air and Emerson Group have supplied $32.5m to Pharmapacks.
Lola inserts $24m into series B
Feminine care provider Lola has added $24m to its coffers, though BBG Ventures elected not return at this point.
Financial
The Ping An-backed trading platform has put its plans for initial public offering on hold and is instead seeking up to $2bn in funding at a valuation of $40bn.
9f Group credits investors for $65m.
Famous Group and Plentiful International have provided $65m in series D funding to 9f Group, a fintech developer already backed by Susquehanna International Group.
Aye Finance says yes to series C
Alphabet’s CapitalG subsidiary has led a $21.5m series C round for loan provider Aye Finance.
Transport
Grab captures $1bn from Toyota
Toyota’s investment has valued Grab at more than $10bn and follows a $2.5bn series G round co-led by SoftBank and Didi Chuxing earlier this year.
Investors in the series B round included FAW, Contemporary Amperex Technology and TUS Holdings.
Used car auction platform Tiantianpaiche raised substantial nine-figure funding from automotive platform Autohome
Services
SoftBank Capital has provided follow-on funding to Reonomy, having previously backed a $3.8m series A and a $13m series B round.
WeWork targets $40bn valuation
SoftBank is considering injecting several billion dollars into the co-working space provider, which would double its valuation to between $35bn and $40bn.
Opendoor leads to $325m series E
Access Industries, Lennar and General Atlantic have co-led a series E round for Opendoor, after Lennar supplied $100m in debt funding earlier this year.
Breather flexes series D muscles
The flexible workspace provider has raised $46m from investors including Ascendas-Singbridge.
Starship lands $42.2m in seed funding
Starship Technologies has raised an additional $25m in seed funding after Daimler led an initial $17.2m investment in January 2017.