Weekly corporate venturing deal net 21 – 25 March 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
La Caixa launches $22m science seed fund
The financial services provider will look to invest in seed-stage companies developing disruptive technologies with long development time frames.
The Vietnam-based digital advertising company is using its Novaon Fund unit to expand its operations by incubating and investing in local startups.
UniCredit confirms $220m fintech investment unit
UniCredit Evo will fund early-stage developers of innovative technology and mid-stage investments in more established companies.
People
Rombaut attacks FR Development role
Frederic Rombaut has left his head of corporate development international position at Cisco after four years to run investment and advisory firm FR Development.
Exits
Luxoft motors to Symtavision acquisition
HTGF-backed spinout Symtavision, a developer of software technology for the automotive sector, has been acquired by Luxoft for an undisclosed amount.
YTO Express to list in $2.7bn reverse merger
The logistics company, which received funding from Alibaba in May last year, will list in China through a reverse merger with garment producer Dalian Dayang Trands.
Roche and Novo-backed Corvus Pharmaceuticals priced its IPO at the lower end of its range and raised $70.5m when it floated on Nasdaq yesterday.
IT
Kenandy gets $11.5m from funding plan
Salesforce.com and law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati returned for a round that boosted the enterprise resource planning company’s overall funding to more than $55m.
Welkio opens its doors to WeWork
WeWork has acquired digital visitor sign-in system developer Welkio less than six months after it was spun out of consulting agency Hathway with $400,000.
Domo upgrades series D round to $330m
Domo, backed by Salesforce and WPP, revealed the new funding at the same time as a $50m fund that will invest in technology relevant to its business data platform.
Sight Machine manufactures $13.5m series B
GE Ventures joined existing investor O’Reilly AlphaTech for a round that the manufacturing analytics company will spend on sales, marketing and product development.
Visionary VR breaks through with $6m
The virtual reality technology startup will use the capital raised through the oversubscribed series A round to grow its development and engineering teams.
Qualcomm joined existing backers including Intel, Cisco and SanDisk for a series C round that pushed the data centre software provider’s total funding past $70m.
Health
SoftBank takes stake in Shanghai Pharma online unit
SoftBank and Shanghai Charity Foundation invested $21m in Shanghai Pharmaceutical Big Health Yunshang, formed by Shanghai Pharmaceuticals.
Topas emerges from Evotec with $15.7m
Evotec has spun out Topas Therapeutics, which is working on treatments for conditions including MS, also contributing to a series A round.
Corporates help Maxwell keep in shape
Maxwell Health has closed a $22m series C round backed by the Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, Sun Life Financial and Cambia Health Solutions.
Syntimmune lets in Baxalta in $10m raise
Baxalta’s corporate venturing unit contributed to the $10m second tranche of the autoimmune disease drug developer’s series A round, expected to close at $26m.
Acutus shows heart with $75m series C
The heart imaging technology company took its overall funding to $135m in a round that included returning investor GE Ventures.
Media
Unilever explores Mirriad opportunities in $15m round
The in-video advertising technology producer will use the Unilever-backed round to scale its technology and form new content partnerships.
Moat fortifies itself with $50m
Softbank-backed Moat has raised $50m in fresh capital to support the development of a standard metric for buying and selling digital adverts.
Consumer
Smart fitness equipment producer eGym has secured $45m, after previously raising $15m in series A capital from investors including High-Tech Gründerfonds.
IDG goes for EZbuy in $20m series B
IDG Capital returned to reinvest in the Southeast Asia-based e-commerce company, which raised the cash as it rebranded from 65daigou.
Fove heads past series A stage with $11m
The virtual reality headset startup raised the money in a Colopl-led round that also featured Samsung and Foxconn.
Financial
M-Service cashes in $28m series B
Standard Chartered and Goldman Sachs have invested in M-Service, boosting the digital wallet provider’s total funding to more than $33m.
HC Technologies was among the investors in consumer lender Cumulus Funding’s $6m series A round, secured alongside a $25m debt facility.
TMC goes HomeUnion in $16m round
Online property investment manager HomeUnion increased its overall funding to $23m in a series B round backed by TMC Group’s Tamarisc unit.
Industrial
Fosun reacts with Molbase in series C round
Molbase, a marketplace for chemicals suppliers, has obtained series C funding from a consortium featuring Fosun-backed firm Kinzon Capital.
Transport
The conglomerate disclosed its earlier funding of the ride hailing app, formerly known as GrabTaxi, alongside the formation of an e-commerce delivery partnership.
Services
Lagou logs $34m series C round
The Bertelsmann-backed online recruitment service has now raised more than $60m in total and will use the money for product development.
Science Exchange swaps series B shares for $25m
O’Reilly Media has returned to back a $25m series B round for Science Exchange, having previously contributed to a $3m series A in 2013.
Checkr ticks off $40m series B
The Alphabet-backed background checking service has raised $40m in funding after having been reported in October 2015 to be seeking at least $30m.