Corporate venturing deal net: 27 – 31 August 2018
Each Friday the Global Corporate Venturing Deal Net rounds up the week’s smaller deals and tracks the emerging companies accessing corporate funds.
Fundraising
Wisconn Valley Venture Fund surges with $100m
Advocate Aurora Health, Foxconn, Johnson Controls and Northwestern Mutual have each put $25m into a $100m venture capital fund.
BLS gives blessing to accelerator
The outsourcing services firm’s BLS Accelerator will provide seed and series A stage investment to startups and plans to invest $700,000 in 2018.
Binance Labs experiments with incubator
Binance’s token-based impact fund has launched plans for an incubator that will supply $500,000 for each participant.
SCG cements investment in Capricorn chemistry fund
Siam Cement has taken a limited partner position in Capricorn Venture Partners’ Capricorn Sustainable Chemistry Fund, which is aiming for a $193m close.
People
Steffek makes strides to Ara Partners
Cory Steffek, a US-based managing director for Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures, has taken an MD role at private equity investment platform Ara.
Taejoon Park has become the second high-profile departure from Applied Ventures in recent months, moving to LG Technology Ventures.
García helps uncork Femsa Ventures
Beverage producer Femsa has promoted Javier García to head its recently launched corporate venturing unit.
Exits
A month after Sutro closed an $85.4m series E round backed by Merck & Co, Celgene, Amgen and Eli Lilly, the cancer drug developer has filed for a $75m initial public offering.
Lyft to beat Uber to public markets
Lyft has hired an initial public offering advisor with plans to list as early as March next year, in a bid to beat its rival Uber to the punch.
X Financial to cross over into $250m IPO
Corporates including Chow Tai Fook Enterprises are in line for an exit thanks to X Financial’s plans to raise $250m in an initial public offering.
Tubatu designs $200m flotation
58.com could exit when Tubatu, a marketplace for home renovation contractors, lists on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Viomi homes in on $150m offering
Xiaomi owns nearly a fifth of Viomi Technology, a smart home appliances producer that is seeking a flotation in the US four years after being incorporated.
SurveyMonkey assesses $100m IPO
Alphabet and Salesforce-backed SurveyMonkey, which most recently disclosed a valuation of $2bn in 2014, is targeting a $100m initial public offering on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.
Amazon strikes Tapzo acquisition deal
Tapzo has been acquired by Amazon Pay India for a reported $30m to $40m, providing an exit to investors including American Express.
Nio charges towards $1.3bn IPO
Tencent-backed smart vehicle developer Nio has set its pricing range at $6.25 to $8.25 and stands to raise $1.32bn if it floats at the top of its range.
Aptus-backed Alzheon hopes to raise $40.3m in proceeds, less than half as much as it had targeted earlier this year before withdrawing plans in May.
Gritstone girds itself for $80m IPO
The Lilly Ventures, GV and Bluebird Bio-backed cancer immunotherapy developer has raised at least $188m in the past three years.
IT
Makeblock builds $44m series C
Yue Xiu Enterprises has taken part in a $44m series C round for Makeblock, the Evolution Media China-backed robotic toy manufacturer.
TAEC-backed enterprise cloud storage provider Zadara has secured $25m in funding led by IGP Capital, bringing its total equity to more than $60m.
Indegy identifies $18m series B
Liberty Media has led a series B round for industrial cybersecurity company Indegy, which also featured Centrica and Ofer Global.
The figure includes $25m raised in February this year alongside $100m in debt financing, and brings Cloudian’s total equity to date to $173m.
UnaBiz connects to corporates for series A
Soracom and Engie have committed capital to a $10m series A round for UnaBiz, which operates a low-power wide-area network in Singapore and Taiwan.
Tascent touches on $19.5m series B
NEC has co-led a series B round for Tascent, which also welcomed Min Aik Technology as a backer.
Intel Capital returned to back a $35m series B round for Spotinst, having previously led the cloud infrastructure technology developer’s $15m series A in July last year.
Lacework ties $24m to series B
Lacework has developed cybersecurity technology specifically aimed at the cloud and has now added $24m to its coffers thanks to investors including Liberty Global Ventures.
Health
Jacobio dispenses $55m series C
Qiming Capital and Hillhouse Capital have co-led a series C round for Eli Lilly-backed Jacobio Pharmaceuticals, which has now launched a corporate venturing arm.
Genomics detects $32.5m series B
Vertex Pharmaceuticals has led a series B round for Genomics, a spinout from University of Oxford that also attracted Oxford Sciences Innovation and IP Group.
Outset originates $132m series D
Baxter Ventures has participated in a series D round for Outset Medical that was led by Mubadala Investment Company.
SoftBank and ZhongAn form joint venture
SoftBank Vision Fund will own a majority stake in the business, which will sell ZhongAn’s technology to financial and healthcare firms and launch with $200m in capital.
China Life docks in Harbour for $85m round
Antibody therapy developer Harbour BioMed has completed a series B round backed by China Life and existing investor Legend Capital.
Media
Pagaya processes $14m series B
Siam Commercial Bank and Clal Insurance have put their weight behind Pagaya, a fintech company that uses artificial intelligence to offer asset management.
Avegant advances to $12m series AA
Intel Capital and Applied Materials-backed augmented reality technology developer Avegant has received $12m in a series AA round.
Channel 4-backed digital magazine platform Readly has added $11.7m to its coffers thanks to commitments from two new investors, Swedbank Robur and Zouk Capital.
Consumer
Mitte taps into corporates for funding
Danone Manifesto Ventures has led a $10.6m funding round for Mitte that also featured Kärcher.
Salesforce engages with Narvar series C
Narvar has obtained $30m in funding from a consortium that included Salesforce Ventures, though Fung Capital chose not to participate this time.
Berkshire Hathaway buys into One97
The investment holding company has made an investment in Paytm owner One97 Communications reportedly sized at up to $356m.
Financial
Terra digs into $32m seed round
Four cryptocurrency exchanges – Binance Labs, OKEx, Huobi and Dunamu – have co-led a $32m seed round for Terra, which is working on a digital payment platform for e-commerce.
Sallie Mae has led a series C round for Deserve, which offers credit cards to students without a credit history.
Xiaomi funds extension to ZestMoney series A
ZestMoney added a $13.4m second tranche led by Xiaomi to a round including PayU that now stands at $19.9m.
Transport
Yihang.ai drives $32m series B
CHJ Automotive-backed Yihang.ai has collected $32m in series B funding led by CICC Jiacheng Investment as it moves towards the launch of its first production model next year.
Blickfeld catches another glimpse of seed round
Lidar technology developer Blickfeld has secured a $5.7m extension from investors including Unternehmertum Venture Capital Partners to bring its seed round to $10m.
Shansong picks up $60m series D1
Shansong Express has added $60m to its coffers following a series D1 round that featured return investors Hearst and SIG.
MaaS Global makes out with new funding
The corporate-backed transport booking and payment service has raised $10.4m in a round that took its total funding to almost $30m.
Big Deal: Toyota takes $500m to Uber
Uber has raised $500m from strategic partner Toyota at a $72bn valuation as the companies prepare to collaborate on driverless car technology.
Services
Puls finds $50m series C rhythm
Samsung has put its weight behind a $50m series C round for Puls, which connects consumers with technicians specialising in smart devices.
Point72 Ventures led a $15.4m round for Reinventure-backed human resources management platform developer Flare that will support hiring.
Planday schedules $40m series C
Planday, a workforce collaboration platform backed by Metro, has closed a $40.8m series C round led by SEB Private Equity.
Tencent to mete out $400m in Meituan Dianping IPO
Meituan Dianping’s forthcoming initial public offering, which is expected to be $4bn in size, will feature Tencent as a cornerstone investor.
Zhenkunhang finds corporate suppliers for $129m round
Legend Capital and Shell China backed a series C round for industrial e-commerce platform Zhenkunhang, which raised a total of $85m last year.
Qualcomm helps ship $60m to CargoX
Qualcomm has returned to support a $60m round for CargoX, having also participated in the trucking services platform’s $20m series C last year.