HMD Global, which has licensed the rights to produce Nokia-developed phones, secured funding in a round featuring two Foxconn subsidiaries.
Corporate venturing deal net: 21-25 May 2018
Each Friday the Global Corporate Venturing Deal Net rounds up the week’s smaller deals and tracks the emerging companies accessing corporate funds.
GCV Symposium Day One: The morning session
A speech by UK minister Graham Stuart was followed by discussions on topics such as new markets, external CVC collaboration and risk versus return.
Fundraising
EWTP Ecosystem Fund attracts $600m
Alibaba and Ant Financial are the anchor investors for the Electronic World Trade Platform Ecosystem Fund’s inaugural funding vehicle.
AlphaX aligns with corporates for $313m first fund
The venture firm’s debut fund has closed having secured capital from limited partners include CreditEase, Focus Media and Qihoo 360.
Raiffeisen offers startups a ride on its Elevator
The Austria-based bank has formed a $29.5m venture capital subsidiary called Elevator Ventures, adding to an existing accelerator initiative.
Legend Capital to operate third healthcare fund
The $157m fund will be the Legend Holdings-backed venture firm’s second RMB-denominated healthcare fund and its third overall.
Philips helps pull $30m for Cardeation Capital
The corporate is one of three investors that have supplied $10m for the fund, which will focus on cardiovascular, stroke and diabetes care.
Cisco, which has invested through its own unit for 25 years, will be the anchor investor in a fund with a nine-figure budget for enterprise software deals.
Ripple launches Xpring to back blockchain projects
The blockchain-based money transfer platform will incubate, invest in and acquire projects or startups that use its XRP digital asset.
MTN-Irancell picks Tehran for VC fund
The telecoms network operator has launched a venture capital scheme in partnership with Iran’s University of Tehran.
People
GV and Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association are set to exit care provider Aspire Health following an acquisition agreement with Anthem.
Zhang zips to Sinovation Ventures
Tom Zhang, an engineering partner at corporate venturing unit GV, has taken the chief data scientist position at VC firm Sinovation.
Exits
Essential Products estimates value of sale
The smartphone producer, which has raised $330m from investors including Tencent, Amazon, Foxconn and Access Industries, is in talks to be acquired.
PPB wins FanDuel in merger deal
Paddy Power Betfair will put up $158m in cash and its US assets to merge with fantasy sports platform FanDuel, which is backed by Alphabet, Comcast and Time Warner.
Electrocore seeks stimulation from IPO
Merck and ENGC are in line for exits after Electrocore, the developer of a nerve stimulation treatment for headaches, filed to raise up to $74.8m.
Adaptive Insights advances toward public markets
The Salesforce-backed business planning software producer has filed for a $100m initial public offering having raised $176m in VC funding.
Logly books in IPO for next month
Investors including CA Mobile, IT Media and Voyage Group are in line for an exit in an offering for the advertising services provider projected for mid-June.
IT
Intel exits as Iovation joins TransUnion
TransUnion has agreed to acquire anti-fraud technology provider Iovation, giving Intel Capital an exit 10 years after it invested.
Valimail packs $25m into series B round
Returning investor Bloomberg Beta took part in a Tenaya Capital-led round that will enable the email authentication software provider to grow its headcount.
Outreach reaps $65m reward in series D round
Existing investor Microsoft Ventures came back for a round that valued customer engagement platform Outreach at $500m and took its total funding to $125m.
Cowarobot finds route to series B funding
SoftBank’s Chinese VC unit, SBCVC, has co-led a $21.1m round for autonomous service robot developer Cowarobot, with the funds to go to R&D.
Cuebiq sticks landing on $27m series B
Nasdaq Ventures and DRW Venture Capital both invested in a round that will fund product development and international growth for location data provider Cuebiq.
DigiLens gets $25m in Continental investment
Strategic partner Continental has supplied $25m in series C funding for the optics technology developer, boosting its stake to 18%.
Sales Optimize Wins £100,000 prize from Salesforce Ventures
At the Salesforce’s annual ‘World Tour’ event in London, e-commerce data science firm Sales Optimize wins the £100,000 prize at DreamPitch 2018.
Orbbec absorbs more than $200m
Ant Financial led the motion sensor and advanced camera developer’s latest round, which included fellow corporate Fosun.
Health
Brii Bio breaks out with $260m
Medicine development startup Brii Biosciences has launched with funding from investors including the WuXi AppTec-backed 6 Dimensions Capital.
Heal diagnoses $20m funding injection
Fidelity-backed medical access service Heal has now secured more than $69m in funding over the past four years.
Wanxiang-backed OM1 has raised series B funding that will be used to enhance its medical data analysis platform.
Naspers Ventures led the senior care provider’s latest round, investing alongside unnamed existing backers to increase its total funding to $115m.
Grail holds another $300m for series C
WuXi AppTec took part in the cancer test developer’s latest round through WuXi NextCode and 6 Dimensions Capital, taking its total funding to more than $1.6bn.
Existing investors GE Ventures and Humana both took part as the primary healthcare provider boosted its overall funding to more than $220m.
EIP secures Access for series B round
EIP Pharma has closed a $20.5m round led by Access Industries that will fund a phase 2b trial for its Alzheimer’s disease treatment.
HifiBio turns up volume on series B
Legend Star has contributed to a $37.5m round for HifiBio, which is developing antibody treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases.
Media
Tencent collars NewsDog in $50m series C
News aggregation app NewsDog has raised funding in a Tencent-led round that included DotC United and Legend Capital.
Consumer
Foxconn writes down $200m Snapdeal investment
Foxconn subsidiary FIH Mobile has written down all but $3m of the $200m it provided for Snapdeal in 2015, according to its 2017 financial report.
Financial
TradingView charts path to $37m
DRW has put its weight behind financial data provider TradingView, which will use the series B funding to drive international expansion.
The Alibaba affiliate is raising funding from a range of institutional investors at a $150bn+ valuation, the largest ever by a private VC-backed company.
ConsenSys Ventures cops to six more deals
The $50m unit, which was set up by blockchain technology supplier ConsenSys, has funded six more projects and launched an accelerator.
Energy and Natural Resources
Shell helps sink $70m into Sonnen
Energy storage and management technology provider Sonnen has formed a cooperation agreement with Shell, which led its latest round.
StoreDot gets $20m infusion from BP Ventures
The investment brought the total raised by the fast-charging battery developer, which is also backed by Samsung and Daimler, to $146m.
Transport
Careem chases $500m at $1.5bn valuation
Existing investors in the on-demand ride provider include Didi Chuxing, Rakuten, Saudi Telecom, Al Tayyar and Daimler.
Uber undertakes $600m secondary round
Coatue Management, Altimeter Capital and TPG are reportedly among the investors involved in the round, allowing employees of corporate-backed Uber to sell shares.
OLX reaches Frontier with $89m investment
Automotive e-commerce marketplace Frontier Car Group has received the series C funding just weeks after announcing its last round.
Like licks series B with Ant Financial help
Chinese car rental service Like has followed up $20m in funding reportedly closed last month with an Ant Financial-led series B round.
Droom drills through to $30m series D
Toyota Tsusho and existing backer Digital Garage have co-led a series D round for the automotive e-commerce marketplace at a reported valuation of up to $700m.
Services
The pet sitting and dog walking service, which counts Petco as an investor, raised the funding together with $30m of debt financing.
Lennar Corporation and Realogy Holdings both contributed to a round that boosted the digital notarisation service’s total funding to $31m.
Sodexo exercises investment option in GymLib
Fitness activity access service GymLib has received $11.8m in a Sodexo-backed round that is its second in less than a year.