Weekly corporate venturing deal net 18 – 22 April 2016
Each Friday the Global Corporate Venturing Deal Net rounds up the week’s smaller deals and tracks the emerging companies accessing corporate funds.
Fundraising
UCWeb presses start on $20m Indian gaming fund
Alibaba’s mobile internet subsidiary is launching the InDev program through its 9Apps app store and will invest in up to 100 India-based game developers.
Legend’s Hony closes $2.7bn dual-currency fund
Hony Capital, which acts as conglomerate Legend Holdings’ private equity arm, has raised a fund in which 70% of the capital is dollars and the rest is renminbi.
Alcon turns on series D funding for PowerVision
Alcon, a subsidiary of Novartis, has bumped PowerVision’s series D round up to $40m as part of a deal that gives it the option to acquire the intraocular lens developer.
AB InBev makes Techstars Connection
Beverage company AB InBev is partnering Techstars to launch a New York-based brewing and social technology accelerator called Techstars Connection.
Deutsche Bank increases Silicon Valley focus
The financial services firm has opened an innovation lab in Silicon Valley in partnership with IBM, following similar initiatives in London and Berlin last year.
Gree forms $12m virtual reality fund
The social media company’s GVR Fund features Colopl and Mixi as limited partners, and will invest in virtual, augmented and mixed reality technology startups.
CincyTech receives healthy interest for fourth fund
Care providers Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and UC Health are among the limited partners in a $30.8m fund raised by the public-private partnership.
Sodhani reveals new firm and warns CVCs
However, ahead of a keynote at the Global Corporate Venturing/DLA Piper Corporate Venture Capital Strategy Seminar in Tokyo, Japan, Sodhani said Silver Trail would invest globally, particularly in the US, Israel and Asia, and across sectors and had lined up some former colleagues to join him.
Exits
Shuddle comes back down to earth
The Comcast-backed, child-focused ride hailing service has shut down after failing to find investors willing to provide more funding.
Public markets lose sight of GenSight IPO
Eye disease therapy developer GenSight Biologics, which had raised almost $78m from investors including Novartis, has withdrawn an IPO expected to raise up to $70m.
Hearst and Verizon make Complex acquisition
The corporates have jointly acquired online media brand Complex, which counted Hearst and Iconix among its investors, for between $250m and $300m.
Asahi Shimbun goes native with Somewrite acquisition
Gree’s corporate venturing unit will exit native advertising technology developer Somewrite, 18 months after taking part in its $1.1m seed round.
Qorvo reaches GreenPeak to give Bosch an exit
Robert Bosch is set to exit RF technology company GreenPeak, which also counted Motorola Venture Capital as an investor, in an acquisition by Qorvo.
Oracle draws up $50m Crosswise acquisition
Nielsen-backed VC firm Pereg Ventures is set to exit device data provider Crosswise in a $50m deal, eight months after leading its $3m series A round.
IT
TrapX captures additional series B funds
Intel and Liberty Media are among the investors in TrapX’s series B round, which has been increased to $14m after a $5m investment by Strategic Cyber Ventures.
CloudEndure recovers a further $6m
The data recovery and migration company has increased the size of a series B round co-led by Infosys to $13m and its overall funding to more than $18m.
Jolata monitors corporates for $7m
Ericsson and Spirent Communications joined founding investor Ata Ventures for the second funding round to be closed by the network monitoring software provider.
Huivo gets funding education with $23m
Fosun Group and Tal Education provided the funding for the educational software developer, which has reportedly now raised $27m in total.
Health
Enterome digests series C funding
The gut microbiome-based treatment developer took its overall funding to almost $40m after Nestlé joined existing backers including Lundbeck for a $16.3m round.
Bright Lifecare’s prescription services spinout has secured $15m in series B funding, following a $6m Intel-backed round last year.
Second Genome raises $42.6m in third funding round
Pfizer and Roche have co-led a $42.6m funding round for Second Genome, increasing the biopharmaceutical company’s total equity funding to $59m.
The dyslipidemia treatment developer has filed for a $60m initial public offering that will allow Pfizer, from which it licensed its lead candidate, to exit.
Proteus raises $50m from new wave of funding
The digital health developer has now raised some $350m from investors including Novartis, Otsuka, Oracle, Medtronic, St Jude’s Medical, Kaiser Permanente and ON.
Corporates blood Imara with $31m
Spun out of orphan drug accelerator Cydan Development, Imara will seek to develop a sickle cell disease treatment licensed from investor Lundbeck.
Media
GV finds happy Medium for $50m series C
Publishing platform Medium boosted its total funding to more than $130m in a GV-backed round that reportedly valued it at $600m.
Baidu Video pops up with $155m
Shanghai New Culture Media has led a funding round for a Baidu spinout that will focus on original video content, while game developer Dalian Zeus has invested approximately $39m.
Consumer
The RealReal boosts riches by $40m
The Novel-backed luxury items marketplace has now raised $123m since 2011 and aims to become profitable this year, with an IPO to come in around 2018.
The Tencent and IDG-backed luxury goods and flowers retailer has raised series C funding that will help it expand its physical store network.
Financial
Corporates look to grow Acorns with $30m
Automated micro-investment service Acorns has raised $30m from backers including Rakuten and PayPal to take its overall funding to $62m.
Transactis sends banks $30m series E invoice
Electronic billing software producer Transactis increased its total funding to $70m, securing $30m from five banks, each of which contributed $6m.
Energy and Natural Resources
GE explores RigUp in $15m series A
Oilfield services marketplace RigUp has secured General Electric as an investor in a round that took its overall funding to $18m.
Industrial
Avantium, which launched a joint venture with BASF last month, has added Flanders’ investment firm PMV and federal holding company FPIM to its shareholders.
Saudi Aramco constructs $10m NanoMech investment
The oil and gas company’s corporate venturing unit has supplied $10m in series C funding to nanotechnology-equipped industrial product developer NanoMech.
Transport
Paytm carries Jugnoo to $10m series B
The online payment company invested $5m to lead a $10m round for the auto rickshaw hailing platform, after participating in its series A round last year.
Renren Kuaidi runs to $50m series B
Delivery service Renren Kuaidi previously secured $15m in a Tencent-led series A round, though the China-based investor in its latest round has not been disclosed.
JD.com ties into Dada Nexus in $200m deal
JD.com has invested $200m in logistics provider Dada Nexus and will merge its own delivery service JD Daojia into the new portfolio company.
Cabify picks up Rakuten for $120m round
Rakuten led Cabify’s series C round having already led its $12m series B, and the ride booking platform will use the funding for further expansion in Latin America.
The last-mile delivery service will use the proceeds from the Yahoo Japan-backed round to grow its customer service capabilities and expand further into Southeast Asia.
Services
SoftBank climbs aboard Yummy Express for $10m round
The China-based last-mile food logistics service has completed a series C round featuring SoftBank’s local corporate venturing subsidiary, SBCVC.
Tencent-backed eJiaJie completes Neeq listing
The app-based home cleaning service has floated on the National Equities Exchange and Quotations market after raising four rounds of funding from investors including Tencent and Shanda.
Curated knowledge provider EdCast raises $16m
SoftBank returned for the daily contextual insight service’s second funding round, which was led by GE Asset Management, lifting its total funding to $22m.
Onfido exhibits credentials in $25m round
Allianz spinout Idinvest contributed to a series B round that will help the UK-based background checking service expand in the US.
IDG returns to NestAway for $30m series C
IDG was one of the accommodation rental platform’s seed investors, and has come back to co-lead its latest round, which will go to growth and technology development.
UTour books a visit to Yaochufa’s $85m series D
Short-haul travel specialist Yaochufa will use the funding, and a partnership with UTour, to expand the range of destinations it offers its Chinese customers.