AAA News round up 29 June 2015

News round up 29 June 2015

Weekly corporate venturing deal net: 22-26 June 2015

Each Friday the Global Corporate Venturing Deal Net rounds up the week’s smaller deals and tracks the emerging companies accessing corporate funds.

Big Deal: OneWeb nets $500m

The satellite internet company has raised cash from backers including Bharti, Airbus, Coca-Cola, Hughes, Intelsat, Grupo Salinas, Qualcomm and Virgin.

Big Deal: Qualcomm Ventures returns Life Fund with Fitbit IPO

Qualcomm Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, which has SAP as its sole limited partner, Softbank Corporation and US financial firm SVB Financial were big winners from the floatation of the fitness tracking business last week.

Fundraising

Amazon seeks new voices with $100m fund

Amazon has formed a fund to back startups that could incorporate its Alexa voice technology, and has revealed its first seven investments.

Quadrille raises $73m for AG2R-LA Mondial-fund

The insurance and financial services group was among the limited partners in an innovation-focused fund with a hard cap of €150m.

OSI grows to £320m with Google’s backing

Oxford Sciences Innovation blew past its target to reach £320m, a little over a month after launching, with the help of Google Ventures.

Exits

Seres to enter public life with $134m IPO

The pharmaceutical company, backed by Nestlé and Mayo Clinic, will begin trading later today after pricing an initial public offering above its range.

Fitbit closes IPO at $841m

The Qualcomm and SoftBank-backed wearable fitness tracker maker’s stock has almost doubled since it went public on Thursday.

InnoLight spies opening in public markets

The optical transceiver maker raised $38m in a series C round in September co-led by Google’s growth equity unit.

Conkwest aims to plunder $173m in IPO

The immunotherapy company, which is backed and partnered by Sorrento, secured almost $60m in funding in December 2014.

Nabriva warms up for $92m IPO

Nabriva, a pneumonia treatment developer backed by Novartis, raised $120m in series B funding two months ago.

 

IT

Checkmarx finds Insight for $84m

The cybersecurity company, which counts Salesforce and Ofer Brothers among its existing investors, will use the cash to expand internationally.

Cisco beds in with Qwilt

Online video technology company Qwilt took its overall funding to $65m, securing $25m from a Cisco Investments-backed series D round.

AtScale weighs up $7m series A

The big data business intelligence company took its overall funding to $9m in a UMC-led series A round.

VenueNext sells $9m series A ticket

The venue management company has received $9m from investors including Twitter, Live Nation and Aruba Networks.

Indix builds funding base with $15m

The product database operator has now raised $30m altogether, after raising capital from backers including Nokia.

Yieldify predicts growth after $11.5m series A

Yieldify has received funding from Google and SoftBank, and plans to use the cash to enhance its predictive marketing technology and expand internationally.

Yotpo contents itself with $15m

The content marketing platform took its total funding to $30m with an Access Industries-backed round that will support the opening of a New York office.

Relay2 runs to $10m series D

The Rogers-backed wifi services provider has left the round open due to the possibility of raising further funds.

Enigma secrets away $28m

The data analysis and discovery tools provider raised the series B capital from a consortium including American Express, Comcast and The New York Times.

Tamr logs $25m for series B

Hewlett-Packard, MassMutual, Thomson Reuters and Google all contributed funds to the round, which increased the big data technology company’s total funding to $41m.

Vox mobilises $6.7m in Telus-backed round

The telecommunications company’s corporate venturing unit was among the investors in a round that will help mobility technology company Vox expand internationally.

LeadSift sorts funding from Salesforce

Salesforce and Omers Ventures have provided an undisclosed amount of cash for the social media intelligence provider, which had previously raised almost $900,000.

 

Health

MDLive sees Bedford Funding for $50m appointment

The virtual health services company has raised more than $70m in the past 18 months from backers including Sutter Health and Sentara Healthcare.

Clementia raises $60m in UCB-backed mezzanine round

Clementia will use the cash to advance its fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva treatment through Phase 2 clinical trials.

Ankasa generates $8.5m of $17m series A

The tissue healing technology startup raised the first tranche of the round from backers including Heraeus’ medical component subsidiary.

Intel tracks Sano for $10.3m seed round

The wearable device startup intends to use the cash to further develop its blood glucose tracking device as it prepares for launch in early 2016.

 

Media

Soundtrack Your Brand sounds out TeliaSonera for series B

The Spotify spin-out has secured $10.9m in a round led by telecommunications company TeliaSonera that will support overseas expansion.

Lost My Name books corporates for series A

Google and The Chernin Group have joined the backers of Lost My Name, which produces personalised books for children.

Olapic curates Unilever for $15m series B

Visual marketing content company Olapic will invest the money in geographical expansion and marketing development.

Jelli broadcasts $21m series B

The radio ad buying technology company has now raised more than $37m altogether, after closing a round featuring Intel, Universal Music and iHeartMedia.

 

Consumer

LittleBits eyes growth with $44m series B

The electronic easy-to-use building kit manufacturer has now raised $59m altogether, with O’Reilly Media numbering among its past backers.

Qualcomm goes Curbside for $25m series B

Mobile shopping app Curbside, which is also backed by O’Reilly Media, has now raised almost $35m altogether and will use the funding to expand its service.

Dollar Shave Club opens up for $75m

The Comcast-backed men’s grooming product retailer has now raised almost $150m, after raising series D money that will fund hiring and marketing.

Casper rests easy after raising $55m

The high-end mattress startup raised the series B funding in a Norwest Venture Partners-backed round at a $555m valuation.

 

Financial

Credit Karma conjures up $175m

The Google-backed credit monitoring platform will leverage the funding to grow into a more expansive finance management service.

Rakuten helps transfer $18m to Currency Cloud

The online payment technology company has now raised $35m in total, after securing funds from a series C round featuring Rakuten and led by Sapphire Ventures.

 

Industrial

Transphorm converts investor interest into $70m

The Google and Nihon-backed power conversion technology producer has now raised almost $230m in total, after securing $70m in a KKR-led round.

 

Transport

Comcast and CDK switch to Automatic

Automatic Labs has raised $24m in series B funding from backers including Comcast, CDK Global, with which it formed a strategic partnership, and USAA.

Uber to raise up to $1bn in new funding

The Hillhouse-led funding will consist of convertible bonds, suggesting the Google and Baidu-backed ride hailing company plans to to go public in the near future.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *