Google was the most active investor by number in the second quarter, taking part in 30 deals. The group involved in the highest-value deals was Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Corporation, which took part in deals worth $2.3bn. These figures are based on how much was invested in the total rounds by SoftBank and other venture firms.
Google Ventures, the internet group’s venturing unit, was among the backers of US-based workplace communications business Slack, which raised $160m, and it also backed US-based payroll services company Zenpayroll alongside Google Capital, the company’s growth equity unit, which led the round.
SoftBank invested in China-based taxi service Didi Dache-Kuaidi Dache, which had raised $742m during the quarter. This round at press time had been increased to $2bn during this month. It also backed India-based taxi-hailing app Ola service as part of a $400m round.
Intel was the second most active investor by number of deals, backing companies including big data analytics company Guavus and virtual signature company Docusign, which raised $278m during the quarter.
Qualcomm Ventures was the third most active investor by number of deals, and its transactions included the $500m deal to back OneWeb, a UK-based company building a network of satellites. It also backed the $125m round for retail analytics company RetailNext.
Large Chinese players continue to be involved in huge deals. Internet portal Tencent, e-commerce business Alibaba and handset manufacture Xiaomi all made it into the top five by value of deals.
Tencent’s deals included backing local restaurant listings business Dianping in an $850m round, Didi Dache-Kuaidi Dache in its big $742m round during the quarter, and local movie booking app Beijing Weiying Technology in a $105m round. Alibaba, along with Chinese manufacturer Foxconn, invested $236m for a 20% stake in a Foxconn robotics subsidiary, and is also a shareholder in Didi Dache-Kuaidi Dache. Xiaomi also backed Dianping, as well as an $80m round for peer-to-peer local lending company Jimubox, and backed the $80m round for local personal transportation business Ninebot, which concurrently bought transport business Segway.
The most active groups were largely technology players, but UK-based pharmaceutical businessGSK, which runs corporate venturing unit SR One, and US-based industrial conglomerate General Electric also made it into the top 10 by number of deals.
GSK’s deals included backing Switzerland-based gene editing business Crispr in an $89m round and UK-based immunooncology business PsiOxus, which raised a $39m round. General Electric’s GE Ventures’ activity included backing a $34m deal for Neuronetics and a $23m round for energy management business Evolution Networks.
