US-based online game developer Owlchemy Labs closed $5m in series A funding on Tuesday from smartphone and virtual reality technology provider HTC; Qualcomm Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of mobile chipmaker Qualcomm; Colopl VR Fund, which is run by game publisher Colopl; The VR Fund, Capital Factory and undisclosed entrepreneurs from its home city of Austin. The funding will support the development of a pipeline of virtual reality games.
US-based chatbot technology startup Sensay has raised $4.5m in seed funding from investors including NHN, the online messaging company also known as Naver. Venture capital firm Norwest Venture Partners led the round, which included Greycroft Partners, Sweet Capital, and Draper Associates, and takes Sensay’s total funding to $6m.
Insurance and financial services group Legal & General has made an investment in Smart Pensions, a UK-based automatic pension enrolment platform for businesses, understood by City A.M. to be larger than the £3.3m ($4.3m) raised by the startup in June this year. The earlier funding had cme in a series A round featuring angel investors Ed Asseily, Tom Valentine and William Reeve, and had taken Secret Pensions’ overall funding to £5m.
IT services firm Infosys has paid $4m for a minority stake in Israel-based cloud deployment technology producer Cloudyn, Hindu Business Line reported on Wednesday. Cloudyn has now raised about $20.5m in total, its earlier funding coming from Carmel Ventures, RDSeed and Titanium Investments.
Quantopian, the US-based developer of a tool that enables users to build their own investment algorithms, has received an undisclosed amount from VC fund Point72 Ventures as part of a deal for it to manage up to $250m of capital for Point72 Asset Management founder Steve Cohen. The company had previously raised $2.1m from trading firm GetCo and Spark Capital in 2012, and another $21.7m from Bessemer Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, Spark Capital, and Wicklow Capital across two rounds in 2013.
Law firm Gilbert + Tobin led a A$4.2m ($3.2m) series B round for Australia-based legal services startup LegalVision yesterday. Gilbert + Tobin had previously led a financing round for LegalVision in November 2015, after the startup had raised $1.5m across rounds in April 2014 and March 2015.
US-based infrastructure, backup and recovery technology developer Green Cloud Technologies closed $2.5m in equity funding and sub debt ‘primarily’ from existing investors on Monday alongside a $5m credit line from Bridge Bank. Green Cloud had previously raised $18.4m in debt and equity from investors including telecom company Millry Corporation and Spring Capital Partners.
MikMak, the US-based creator of a video-focused mobile shopping app, has closed a $3.2m seed round led by marketing agency VaynerMedia, TechCrunch reported yesterday. The round also featured UTA Ventures, the corporate venturing vehicle for talent agency United Talent Agency, Slow Ventures, Brave Ventures and MX Investments. VaynerMedia co-founder Gary Vaynerchuk will join the startup’s board of directors.
Lighting technology provider Syska LED Group has invested $2.5m in India-based hyperlocal grocery delivery service Tokri and made a commitment to provide additional funding, VCCircle reported on Monday. Founded in 2015, Tokri sources fresh produce directly from farmers, and will use the funding to enhance customer experience and open warehouses in cities including Pune.
ShareaCamper, the Germany-based operator of an online platform for caravan and recreational vehicle hire, has closed a €2m ($2.2m) financing round backed by German and New Zealand-headquartered companies including software services provider Werkdigital. The funding will be used to expand the company’s customer base, particularly among those who have never rented a camping vehicle.
Sheroes, the India-based operator of a female-focused job listings platform, has raised Rs 120m ($1.8m) in series A funding from digital media company Quntillon Media, Lumis Partners, HR Fund and angel investor Rajul Garg, the Economic Times reported on Tuesday. The funding was supplied as part of a larger round, and follows an undisclosed amount invested in 2015 by Quintillion Media, 500 Startups and assorted angel investors.
US-based mobile marketing software startup Pulsate completed a $1.5m funding round on Tuesday backed by online payment firm PayPal, Dunnhumby Ventures, which invests as the corporate venturing arm of retail analytics provider Dunnhumby, Delta Partners’ Bank of Ireland Seed Fund and Enterprise Ireland. Pulsate raised $1.2m from the same investors in February 2015 but has not stated whether the new funding represents an extension of the same round or a new one.
Cambridge Innovations, an investment and technology subsidiary of IT services provider Cambridge Technology Enterprises, has supplied an undisclosed amount of funding for both US-based heating and air conditioning control platform EnerAllies and US-based compliance management platform ComplyGlobal, VCCircle reported on Tuesday. ComplyGlobal had previously raised $2.5m from IBCC and Tribeca Angels in May 2015.
Brand Capital, the ad-for-equity arm of media group Bennett Coleman & Co, is set to lead a Rs 15m ($220,000) round for India-based waste management service ExtraCarbon, VCCircle reported on Wednesday. The round will also include an undisclosed institutional fund and a high net-worth individual, according to ExtraCarbon co-founder Gaurav Joshi.