Corporate venturing deal net: 17-21 September
Each Friday the Global Corporate Venturing Deal Net rounds up the week’s smaller deals and tracks the emerging companies accessing corporate funds.
Fundraising
Reply searches for latest Best in Breed
Breed Reply has launched an eighth call for internet-of-things startups to take part in its Best in Breed scheme.
Corporates reward Hustle in first fundraising
Hustle Fund has raised $11.5m for its pre-seed fund, taking capital from Shanda, Line and Naver.
Ajao’s Base attracts $137m for first fund
Base10 Partners, the venture firm formed by Workday Ventures alumnus Adeyemi Ajao last year, has secured capital for its inaugural fund.
Aflac amplifies corporate venturing fund to $250m
Aflac Ventures Fund, launched in early 2017 with a $100m investment target, has been broadened by its insurer parent to $250m.
Barclays picks 10 more for accelerator
Barclays has selected the 10 participants that will take place in the 2018 cohort of its New York accelerator.
Snap colours in Yellow accelerator
The messaging platform has selected the first nine participants in its accelerator, with each set to receive $150,000 in equity funding.
The Mitsui-backed luxury electric vehicle developer has agreed a $1bn funding injection from the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund.
Golden Gate closes third fund with $100m
Hanwha, Naver and Mitsui Fudosan all chipped in as the Southeast Asian venture firm closed an oversubscribed third fund.
Corporates nurture $70m Raise Ventures fund
Bouygues, Danone and L’Oréal have become limited partners in the Raise Ventures fund, which has achieved a first close of $70m.
People
Jonathan Lai has moved to Coatue Management after three years overseeing Tencent’s western investments and partnerships.
Rosenberg finds route to M Ventures
Dave Rosenberg has left a managing director position at GE Ventures to head Merck Group unit M Ventures’ New Business Fund.
Shukla replaces Schuder at HPE Ventures
Abhishek Shukla has become the third managing director to leave GE Ventures in recent weeks, taking an MD role at HPE Ventures.
Amazon Web Services has hired Ewa Treitz from fund manager Black Pearls as a business development manager to work with startups.
Heinz climbs into BASF’s Chemovator
Björn Heinz, an investment manager at BASF Venture Capital since 2013, is now deputy managing director of its Chemovator incubator.
Exits
Uber explores 10-figure Deliveroo acquisition
NGP Capital-backed food delivery service Deliveroo was valued at $2bn as of November but a successful bid would need to be a sizeable upgrade.
The Rocket Internet-backed e-commerce platform is considering an initial public offering in the US early next year at a valuation of $1bn.
Eventbrite proves just the ticket in $230m IPO
The Square-backed event ticketing technology provider will float at the top of its range having previously raised almost $360m in equity funding.
Infosys sucks up Fluido in $76m acquisition
Salesforce Ventures is set to exit CRM services provider Fluido three years after backing a $3.5m round, in an acquisition by Infosys.
Equillium seeks $86m IPO balance
Biocon, which owns nearly a fifth in the company thanks to a licensing agreement, is in line for an exit when Equillium lists on the Nasdaq Global Market.
Despite raising a reported $118m in funding from investors including Intel, Alphabet, GE, Mitsubishi and Caterpillar, Airware has shut down.
Uber approaches $2.5bn Careem acquisition
A purchase of Careem, which is currently being touted at between $2bn and $2.5bn, would allow Didi Chuxing, Rakuten, Daimler, Saudi Telecom and Al Tayyar to exit.
The immuno-oncology therapy developer’s investors include Pfizer and Gilead Sciences, both of which contributed to a $300m round in January.
Qutoutiao reports news of $84m IPO
Tencent and Xiaomi-backed news aggregation platform Qutoutiao floated at the foot of its range, in an IPO in which JD.com invested about $14m.
Anaplan approaches public markets with $100m IPO filing
The connected planning software provider has raised a total of $300m from investors including Salesforce and Workday and was valued at $1.4bn in 2017.
Principia goes public in $106m IPO
The GSK-backed small molecule drug developer floated at the top of its range to raise just over $106m.
IT
Qualcomm Ventures co-led the series E round, which increased the AR and computer vision technology developer’s overall funding to $137m.
Porsche, Hyundai, JVCKenwood and Alibaba have backed a series C round that valued augmented reality technology developer WayRay at $500m.
GitLab programs $100m series D
GV has returned to back a $100m series D round for software services provider GitLab, which has achieved a valuation of more than $1bn.
UiPath strikes $225m series C deal
CapitalG, which previously backed a $152m series B round in March this year, has returned to co-lead UiPath’s $225m series C.
Enigma untangles $95m investment
BB&T, MetLife, Capital One and Comcast formed part of a consortium that provided $95m in funding to Enigma, a data analytics company that last raised cash in 2015.
Samsung helps upload $60m to Datrium
Samsung Catalyst Fund has led a $60m series D round for Datrium, a cloud computing technology developer that has now attracted $170m in funding to date.
Q4 quickens pace to raise $38m
OpenText Enterprise Apps Fund returned to back investor relations software provider Q4, two years after co-leading its series B round.
Swiss Post, Samsung and Edenred helped workplace communication platform Beekeper add more series A funding to the $8m it raised last year.
Health
Ro satisfies craving with $88m
The Forbes-backed end-to-end healthcare product supplier has raised $88m in series A funding and added a smoking cessation service.
Galera Therapeutics digests $150m
Novartis and Novo both returned for cancer-focused biotech developer Galera’s series C round, which also included Nan Fung Life Sciences.
Endotronix enters $45m series D
OSF Ventures and Wanxiang Healthcare Investments are among the backers of a $45m series D round in heart monitoring platform Endotronix.
Trumpf shows RSP respect in series B round
Corporate venturing unit Trumpf Venture invested $4.5m to help the diabetes monitor developer close the round at $12.1m.
ExocoBio extracts series B funding
SBI-backed ExocoBio has secured $26.7m in a series B round that brought the exosome-based treatment developer’s total funding to about $46m.
The psychiatric and neurological disease drug developer has secured $25m in a series B round co-led by Pfizer Ventures.
Media
ShareChat communicates $99m deal
Xiaomi has returned to contributed to a $99.2m funding round for ShareChat led by fellow existing investor Shunwei Capital.
Binance Labs invested in a round that will support enhancement of Cocos-BCX’s blockchain game development platform.
Consumer
Yi Jiupi toasts $200m series D
The online wine retailer has completed a round that was co-led by Tencent and Meituan Dianping at a reported $1.1bn valuation.
Clippings clasps series B funding
The home design products marketplace has secured $15.4m in a round led by Advance Venture Partners, which will also get a board seat.
StockX consumes $44m in series B round
The consumer goods trading platform has closed a round co-led by GV that will fund the expansion of its trading options and authentication centres.
Financial
Trumid troops to $53m series D
SGX has led a $53m round for electronic bond trading platform Trumid, which also welcomed back Deutsche Börse in the round.
Moka makes $24m in series B round
SoftBank Ventures Korea joined existing investor Mandiri Capital for a $24m series B round for point-of-sale software producer Moka.
Unmortgage homes in on seed capital
The MMI-backed Anthemis Exponential Ventures was among the investors in a $14.3m seed round as Unmortgage prepares for a 2019 launch.
Orange pays attention as Yoco raises $16m
Payment technology provider Yoco has secured funding in a series B round led by Partech Ventures with backing from Orange Digital Ventures.
Industrial
Tire recycling technology provider Black Bear Carbon has received $12.8m in a round backed by both corporates.
Transport
Daimler helps provide $155m for Proterra
The electric bus producer added new strategic partner Daimler to its stable of corporate investors as it boosted its overall financing to $565m.
Whill winds up $45m funding round
Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance and Digital Garage contributed to a round that took the mobility vehicle developer’s total funding to $80m.
Tencent, SoftBank and Didi Chuxing-backed ride hailing platform Ola has now achieved a valuation of $4.3bn.
Tuhu tunes into $450m series E
Tencent came on board as a Tuhu investor and strategic partner in a series E round that followed a Baidu-backed round two years ago.
Services
The apartment rental marketplace has now raised $90m altogether, having secured $46m in an Axel Springer-backed round.
Freightos loads $44.4m into series C
SGX has led a $44.4m series C for Freightos, a freight services platform that also welcomed back General Electric for the round.