Big Deal: Oyo to make room for $250m
SoftBank is reportedly set to invest $225m to lead the hotel booking platform’s latest round as part of a large-scale Indian online services investment strategy.
Corporate venturing deal net: 24-28 April 2017
Each Friday the Global Corporate Venturing Deal Net rounds up the week’s smaller deals and tracks the emerging companies accessing corporate funds.
Fundraising
Venture Reality Fund, has added HP Tech Ventures to a stable of corporate backers that includes PMBC, Youzu Interactive, Colopl, YJM, Gumi and Sinclair Broadcast Group.
Mail.Ru inserts $100m into game fund
The internet company’s newly formed Games Investment Division will invest up to $100m in game developers and publishers in the form of equity, acquisitions and royalty deals.
Orange logs into Facebook for accelerator scheme
The corporates, both members of the Telecom Infra Project initiative, are collaborating on an accelerator program for network infrastructure technology startups.
Cisco helps SeedPlus grow to $18m
Jungle Ventures offshoot SeedPlus has exceeded its hard cap with funding from limited partners including corporate venturing unit Cisco Investments.
Joyoung helps apply $116m to YI Capital fund
Venture firm YI Capital has closed its first fund at its RMB800m hard cap, with capital coming from limited partners including appliance producer Joyoung.
Aavishkaar finds Hero to back latest fund
Hero Enterprise has committed $15.5m to the $310m Aavishkaar Bharat Fund, the latest to be raised by impact investor Aavishkaar Venture Management.
SAP seeks sweet 16 for Indian accelerator
The enterprise software firm will up the number of participants in its SAP StartUp Studio from seven to 16 this year.
People
Naspers adds Tschopp to its CVC team
Martin Tschopp, formerly CEO of online lending platform Kiva, has joined Naspers Ventures as chief operating officer.
Drew Aldrich has moved from AXA Strategic Ventures, where he was senior associate, to American Family Ventures where he has been appointed principal.
Exits
URWork finds New Space for merger deal
URWork, the working space provider backed by several real estate developers, has merged with incubation-focused counterpart New Space to form a $1.3bn company.
SiriusXM goes Automatic in $100m acquisition
The online radio group has bought in-car connected technology developer Automatic Labs, giving exits to Comcast, CDK Global and USAA among others.
TeleSign signals Telstra exit through $230m acquisition
Bics has agreed to acquire TeleSign, which raised $49m in a 2014 Telstra-backed series B round, to form the world’s first end-to-end communications-platform-as-a-service provider.
Yik Yak gets Square deal in $3m acqui-hire
Square has reportedly paid $3m for the engineering team of microblogging platform Yik Yak, likely signalling the Renren-backed company is nearing the end of the line.
Microsoft to commission Cloudyn acquisition
Microsoft could pay up to $70m for the cloud optimisation platform, which has raised more than $20m in funding including $4m from Infosys last August.
IT
Arsanis arms itself with series D funding
GV and Alexandria Venture Investments have contributed to a $45.5m series D round for infectious disease therapy developer Arsanis, which has now raised $95m in total.
Domino falls for Bloomberg and raises $27m
Bloomberg Beta has reinvested in data science platform developer Domino, five months after contributing to a $10.5m round for the company.
Sense360 circles round to $7m series A
Customer data provider Sense360 has added $7m to almost $2.8m in seed capital raised two years ago, with Qualcomm Ventures contributing to both rounds.
Sensoro detects corporates for $18m series B
Bosch and Sumitomo have kicked in for the internet-of-things technology developer’s latest round, which comes almost 18 months after its Nokia-backed series A.
Dome9 structures $16.5m series C round
SoftBank has led a series C round for Dome9 Security as part of a Japanese distribution agreement, taking the cybersecurity software provider’s total funding to $29m.
Sapho produces with $14m series B
The workplace productivity software developer has now raised $26.5m altogether, with Bloomberg Beta investing in the company for a third time.
Health
Aqiunnah accepts $10m from Pfizer and AbbVie
The pharmaceutical firms have added funding that will help advance Takeda-backed Aquinnah Pharmaceuticals’ neurodegenerative disease drugs.
Science 37 discovers $29m in series C round
The clinical trials technology provider has now raised more than $66m in the space of 18 months, attracting GV, Sanofi Ventures, Amgen Ventures and DRx Capital for its latest round.
AltheaDx passes series D test with $27m
The WuXi PharmaTech-backed molecular diagnostics technology developer has raised $27m that will go to commercialising its IDgenetix product.
Forge hammers out $15m series A
Red Apple Group, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation and Alexandria Real Estate Equities have all invested in the antibiotics developer.
Onkos schedules $17.6m funding operation
Medical technology developer Onkos Surgical has raised $17.6m from investors including 3D printing equipment provider 3D Systems.
The cloud-based drug prescription platform has closed a round that included new investor GV and SR One, a backer since seed stage.
Consumer
Tmon bags $115m with $44m from Simone
Handbag maker Simone’s fund management arm has invested $44m as part of a $115m down round that valued mobile commerce platform Tmon at $1.2bn.
Tengelmann vehicle Emil Capital Partners has contributed to the frozen meal provider’s series B round, four years after leading its series A.
August Home unlocks $17m in funds
The smart home technology developer, backed by a host of corporates in its last round, has raised another $17m according to a securities filing.
Financial
Robinhood plunders $110m in series C round
A mixture of investment and VC firms have provided series C funding for the Alphabet-backed online brokerage at a $1.3bn valuation.
Singapore Life gets $50m of series A insurance
The stealth-mode life insurance startup has received series A funding from investors including Credit China Fintech Holdings’ Impact Capital Holdings subsidiary.
OP makes Token investment in series A round
Payment technology developer Token has raised $15.7m in a round featuring OP Financial Group, with which it formed a partnership agreement earlier this month.
Energy and Natural Resources
The France-headquartered utility has paid an undisclosed sum for a 30% stake in the China-based solar project developer as part of a joint venture agreement.
Industrial
Tate & Lyle gets a taste of Nutriati
Vegetarian protein substitute developer Nutriati has raised $8m in a round co-led by Tate & Lyle Ventures, which has also taken a board seat at the company.
Transport
Didi Chuxing closes in on $6bn
The ride hailing company is in talks to raise up to $6bn at a $50bn valuation, with existing backer SoftBank set to be among the investors.
Ofo adds Ant Financial to its investors
The online financial services provider has joined a shareholder base that already includes Didi Chuxing to invest an undisclosed sum in the bike sharing company.
The Indian ride hailing service, which closed a $330m SoftBank-backed round in February, has had a $100m convertible securities issue approved by its board of directors.
Services
Accenture goes to WorkMarket for $25m round
Freelance staff management platform WorkMarket has taken its total funding to $66m in a round that added Accenture to its shareholder list.
EverFi gets Advanced help to raise $190m
Advance Publications has returned to invest in a Rise Fund-led series D round for digital education provider EverFi, less than a year after backing its $40m series C.
RapidSOS gets assistance from corporates
Motorola Solutions and AAA Northern California, Nevada & Utah both invested as emergency assistance technology developer RapidSOS closed a $14m series A round.