Weekly corporate venturing deal net 12 October – 16 October 2015
Each Friday the Global Corporate Venturing Deal Net rounds up the week’s smaller deals and tracks the emerging companies accessing corporate funds.
Fundraising
GE to line up 10 more for Startup Health Academy
GE Ventures has extended its partnership with Startup Health Academy to attract a second group of at least 10 startups to their Entrepreneurship Program.
500 Startups doubles Southeast Asia fund
The firm is now seeking $20m for the fund, and Genting and GS Home Shopping are reported to be among its limited partners.
Corporates feed $200m to Womai
Womai.com, the food and beverage-commerce platform formed by state-backed firm COFCO, has closed a series C round co-led by Baidu and Taikang Life Insurance.
Salesforce Ventures commits $100m to European journey
Salesforce’s corporate venturing unit is set to invest the cash to take advantage of an expected European cloud software boom in the next few years.
National Grid, Southern Company and Xcel Energy have committed capital to a fund launched by Energy Impact Partners that will invest in sustainable and efficient energy technology.
People
Vaillancourt ventures to Intrexon
Joseph Vaillancourt, a long-term corporate venturing figure at Waste Management, will direct Intrexon’s environment technology activities.
Google Ventures secures Gillett as EIR
Stephen Gillett, most recently cybersecurity company Symantec’s chief operating officer, has joined Google Ventures as one of its executives-in-residence.
Lin exits NGP to find the right Inflection
Annie Lin has left corporate venturing unit Nokia Growth Partners, where she served as vice president, for a role at digital identity management company Inflection.
Exits
Roche agrees $105m Adheron acquisition
MedImmune, Amgen and GlaxoSmithKline are all set to exit Adheron in a deal that could potentially rise to $580m if all milestones are met.
Quikr to move into CommonFloor
Quikr, which is also raising cash at a $1.5bn valuation, is set to acquire the Google-backed property listings platform for about $160m in cash and stock.
Voyager goes boldy forth to $86m IPO
Voyager Therapeutics, which is developing treatments for central nervous system diseases, has raised $124m from investors including Aventis.
Citi, Starbucks and Visa are all investors but none are among the main shareholders of the payment processor, which last raised money at a $6bn valuation.
The Access and Orange-backed music streaming service expects to float at the end of this month, with ProSiebenSat1 and several record labels to secure shares.
IT
SightCall visualises $8.4m series B
Idinvest-backed SightCall’s technology enables a user to receive customer support through a video chat on their smartphone.
Salesforce calls on Talkdesk for $6m series A
Salesforce’s strategic investment unit led a $6m extension to the call centre software developer’s series A round, which is now sized at $21m.
Wynd orders $7.8m in Orange-backed round
Restaurant ordering software startup Wynd plans to use the series A round, backed by Orange’s corporate venturing arm, to expand and strengthen its platform.
The workplace communication technology provider has followed up $66m in funding late last year with a Google-backed round that will support expansion.
Optimizely to upgrade with $58m
The Google-backed website optimisation platform has added Salesforce, Citigroup and others to its list of shareholders, boosting its total funding to more than $146m.
SteelBrick constructs $48m series C
Eight months after supporting the sales software provider’s series B round, Salesforce has returned to take part in a round that boosted its total funding to $78m.
Cybereason detects SoftBank for $59m series C
SoftBank led the cybersecurity company’s latest round with a $50m investment, made as part of a strategic partnership agreement.
PubNub sends series C extension memo
The communications platform increased its series C round to $25m, securing an additional $5m from investors including Robert Bosch.
Bracket unites investors for $45m
GE and Qualcomm returned to back the cloud infrastructure provider’s series C round, investing alongside the likes of Fidelity and Norwest Venture Partners.
Health
BioWink tracks $7m for series A
BioWink, the developer of fertility tracking app Clue, previously obtained seed funding from investors including Dr Kade and Groupe Arnault.
Gamida sells Novartis on $15m investment
The pharmaceutical firm is following a $35m investment in Gamida Cell last year with up to $15m of cash over the next two years.
23andme decodes $115m series E
The genetic testing company has now raised $225m after Alphabet, Illumina and WuXi PharmaTech took part in a Fiedlity-led round that valued it at $1.1bn.
Corporates support $22m Minoryx series A
Minoryx has raised $22.1m from backers including Roche and Chiesi, and will look to advance its lead Orphan disease therapy through clinical testing.
Novo sides with Galera for $37m
Galera Therapeutics, which develops therapies to prevent side effects from cancer treatments, has completed a Novo-led series B round also featuring Novartis.
Decibel rings up $52m in series A
GlaxoSmithKline took part in the round and secured a board seat at the startup, which is developing treatments for hearing disorders.
Media
Everstring pulls IDG into $65m series B
IDG Ventures, a participant in Everstring’s series A round last year, is among the investors in a round that took its funding to almost $79m since 2012.
IDG, Fosun and LineKong have taken part in a funding round for Fuze, which is developing a game console that will serve the Chinese market.
The Samsung and Bertelsmann-backed virtual reality technology developer is working on a platform that will allow anyone to create their own digital worlds.
Google spinout Niantic secures series A backing
The mobile game developer has received $20m from Google, Nintendo and The Pokemon Company, with another $10m of milestone-based capital potentially to come.
Consumer
GlamSquad raises $15m to join series B league
SoftBank and AOL have both returned to back a $15m funding round for the on-demand beauty service, which has now raised $24m in total.
Yunmake gets series A wheels spinning
The company has created a folding electric bike and will use the capital to support a full launch of the product.
Amadeus-backed Bluesmart’s first funding round follows a $2.2m crowdfunding campaign that resulted in 15,000 pre-orders for its smart luggage products.
BuildZoom builds $10.6m series A consortium
The Digital Garage-backed online marketplace, which connects homeowners with contractors, has raised $10.6m in new funding.
Financial
Kabbage proves itself healthy with $135m
Recruit and three financial services firms joined an investor base already including UPS and SoftBank, taking the lending marketplace’s funding to $240m altogether.
Moven banks on international markets
The Sberbank and Standard Bank-backed fintech developer has raised $12m to support international expansion, bringing its overall funding to more than $24m.
Industrial
CyPhy raises $22m to reach new heights
UPS has joined existing investor Motorola and several venture capital firms for drone manufacturer CyPhy Works’ series B round.
Transport
Rakuten hails Cabify for $12m series B
The Rakuten-led round will support the expansion of Spain-based Cabify’s ride hailing service in Latin America and lifted its overall funding to more than $26m.
Services
Phoenix rises with $30m from TAL
TAL Education took a 32% stake in Phoenix, the operator of China’s most widely used e-learning platform, through the deal.
Alibaba and Ping An back 58 Home
The corporates joined KKR to supply $300m to 58.com’s local services subsidiary, which is now valued at $1bn.
Telecoms
Uxin Internet calls in Sina for $100m
The deal, which includes capital and resources, will allow the users of Sina’s Weibo microblogging platform to make calls using Uxin Internet’s free service.