Weekly corporate venturing deal net 25 – 29 September 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
Shell unsheathes Singapore accelerator
IdeaRefinery will not invest directly in the startups but will provide support, office space and executive mentorship.
People
McKesson taps Williams and Mertol for CVC roles
McKesson Ventures has hired Carrie Hurwitz Williams from Omada Heath as principal and taken on Irem Mertol as a director.
Exits
The database software supplier, which has raised more than $310m from investors including Salesforce, Intel, EMC, Dell and Red Hat, has filed to go public.
Sea sets itself for billion-dollar IPO
The internet company has filed for a $1bn initial public offering in the US that will give exits to Tencent, JG Summit Holdings and Uni-President Enterprises.
Motion AI reaches HubSpot in acquisition deal
HubSpot has paid an undisclosed sum to acquire Crush Management-backed intelligent chatbot developer Motion AI.
SAP gets Gigya in $350m acquisition
Intel, Advance Publications and Adobe are all set to exit customer management software provider Gigya, which had raised more than $100m in funding.
iQiyi quickens pace to public markets
The online video streaming platform, in which Baidu holds a majority stake, is mulling an early 2018 flotation in the US that could value it at up to $10bn.
Knightscope amplifies public offering to $15.9m
Konica Minolta, Flextronics and NTT Docomo-backed security robot manufacturer Knightscope has secured more than $15.9m in a mini-IPO that has a $20m target.
The streaming device and subscription service has priced an initial public offering in which Sky Ventures will sell more than $9m of shares.
Media group Gannett is set to exit Livestream through an acquisition of undisclosed size, almost a decade after it invested $10m in the live video streaming platform.
Sea has acquired an 82% stake in portfolio company Foody, a restaurant booking, ordering and review platform also backed by CyberAgent, for approximately $64m.
Nexon nabs $80m majority stake in Korbit
Nexon has acquired a majority stake in SoftBank and SK Telecom-backed cryptocurrency exchange Korbit, in a deal that valued the company at $120m.
IT
ClearMetal unboxes $9m in series A round
DCLI and corporate venturing units PSA Unboxed and SAP.io were among the participants in logistics optimisation startup ClearMetal’s series A.
Comcast storms Bastille in $27m series B
Bastille Networks, which locates and provides security against radio-borne threats, has now raised $40m altogether and is reportedly valued at $100m.
Symphony builds to $100m round
The secure messaging platform, which counts Google and a range of banks as backers, is in talks with new investors to raise a nine-figure sum.
Humatics tracks corporates to raise $18m
Airbus Ventures, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Intact Ventures and Presidio Ventures were among the investors in the location-tracking startup’s series A round.
GV re-ups in $15m Incorta series B
GV, which led the big data software developer’s series A round six months ago, returned to take part in its Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers-led series B.
ProsperWorks presents $53m series C
GV came on board for an NVP-led round that increased the customer relationship management platform’s overall funding to $87m.
Drift moves to series B with $32m
The automated sales and marketing software developer has added $32m to the $15m series A round it closed two years ago, with HubSpot participating in both.
Microsoft and Salesforce have participated in a series C round for Onfido, an identity verification service also backed by University of Oxford.
Efinix evolves with corporate investment
Xilinx co-led a $9.5m round for the programmable technology developer that included corporate venture capital unit Samsung Ventures.
Health
XW Laboratories finds series B result
The neurological disorder drug developer has secured $20m in a series B round backed by existing investors Johnson and Johnson and WuXi AppTec.
Legend Capital co-led the pharmaceutical and chemical research service provider’s series B round, which also featured Dianjing Shijie.
Edesa edges to series A for $7m
Pharmascience subsidiary Pendopharm has participated in Edesa Biotech’s series A round as part of a licensing agreement.
DispatchHealth gets Acute investment
Acute Care Solutions has participated in a $30.8m round for home care access platform DispatchHealth that was co-led by Questa Capital and Alta Partners.
M2Gen makes out with $75m from Hearst
Hearst has put $75m into M2Gen, a genetic database subsidiary of Moffitt Cancer Center, with a view to accelerating the development of cancer treatments.
SpringWorks moves to $103m series A
Pfizer has licensed four clinical-stage treatments to SpringWorks Therapeutics and participated in the drug developer’s series A round.
Deep Genomics finds $13m in series A
Khosla Ventures led the genetic medicine developer’s series A round, which comes after a 2015 seed round featuring Bloomberg Beta.
Fusion mixes investors for $46m series A
Fusion Pharmaceuticals has closed its series A round at $46m following a $21m extension that featured medical device maker Varian Medical Systems.
Norgine prescribes $11.9m for Caresyntax
The pharmaceutical company has invested in healthcare analytics software provider Caresyntax through its corporate venturing subsidiary.
Existing investor Merck & Co took part in a round that boosted the healthcare work management platform’s overall funding to $135m.
Media
Fotor captures $7.6m in series B round
GF Securities has added $7.6m to the $3m in series A funding that photo editing platform Fotor raised from Lenovo five years ago.
Qingting tunes in to $151m series E
Youku Tudou-backed online radio platform Qingting has secured $151m in a series E round provided by a group of unnamed investors.
Playbuzz tells $35m series C story
The interactive storytelling platform has now raised $66m since it was founded in 2012, after existing investor Disney returned to back its latest round.
Dreamscape absorbs AMC funding in $20m round
AMC Entertainment will invest $10m in VR entertainment developer Dreamscape Immersive’s series B round as part of a strategic partnership agreement.
Consumer
Fidelity and T Rowe Price have agreed to contribute to a $384m round that will value Nokia-backed food delivery platform Deliveroo at $2bn.
Le Collectionist indulges in $10m
Artémis led the series B round through its Red River West, a fund it launched three months ago to support French startups hoping to expand into the US.
Comcast helps deliver $20m for Mealpal
Existing investor Comcast Ventures returned to lead a series A round that increased the lunch subscription service’s funding this year to $35m.
Meituan Dianping makes inroads on $3bn round
The online services provider, which has already raised $5.9bn, is reportedly nearing a $3bn Tencent-backed round that will value it at up to $30bn.
Debenhams makes a $10m appointment with Blow
Beauty services provider Blow, which also counts Unilever as an investor, will begin setting up beauty bars at Debenams department stores through the deal.
The Naspers-backed classified listings app developer has raised additional cash from existing investors at a $1bn valuation, taking its total funding to $475m.
Financial
QianBaoCard labels $152m series B
QianBaoCard, an affiliate of Guangdong Homa Appliances subsidiary QianBao, sells point-of-sale terminals to merchants in more than 200 cities across China.
Koho cops $8m from Power Financial
Power Financial, which originally invested in mobile financial services platform Koho last year, has added $8m in funding through its Portag3 Ventures unit.
A fund co-managed by FinEx Asia has invested $50m in corporate-backed online lending marketplace Prosper, possibly at less than a third of its $1.9bn valuation in 2015.
Suishou manages $200m series C
Fosun-backed Suishou operates a range of personal finance management apps that allow consumers to handle budgets and keep track of their credit card usage.
Northwestern Mutual Future Ventures contributed to a series B round that Chime will use to increase the features on its mobile banking app.
Existing investor HSBC returned for the cloud finance management software provider’s latest round, which was led by Sumeru Equity Partners.
Energy and Natural Resources
Ambyint extracts series A funding
GE Ventures and Statoil Technology Invest both participated in an inaugural funding round for Ambyint, which uses AI to improve production at oil and gas wells.
Transport
Renrenche hails Didi Chuxing for $200m
Didi Chuxing has provided $200m of funding for the automotive e-commerce platform and will begin offering the company’s services through its app.
Rimac takes a $35m ride on Camel
Battery producer Camel Group has supplied $35.3m in funding for electric vehicle technology developer Rimac Automobili, which also counts China Dynamics as a backer.
Jingchi cruises to $52m pre-series A
Nvidia GPU Ventures is part of a consortium that has provided $52m in pre-series A funding for Jingchi, a developer of self-driving car technology.
Services
The recruitment platform increased its total funding to more than $16m in a round that included Randstad Innovation Fund, BBG Ventures and Workday Ventures.
Lagou logs $119m in funding from 51job
Human resources firm 51job will acquire a 60% stake in tech-focused online hiring platform Lagou, which had previously raised about $65m in funding.
Flexport boxes up $110m series C
The Bloomberg and Alphabet-backed freight shipping optimisation platform increased its overall funding to more than $200m and is now valued at $910m.
Alibaba packs almost $800m into Cainiao
The e-commerce firm is set to invest $798m in logistics platform Cainiao, taking its stake from 47% to 51% and valuing it at approximately $20bn.
Jopwell recruits Teneo for $7.5m series A
Teneo’s corporate venturing unit has contributed to a series A round for diversity-oriented recruitment service Jopwell, taking its total funding to near $12m.