AAA Weekly corporate venturing deal net: 1-5 December 2014

Weekly corporate venturing deal net: 1-5 December 2014

Teambition, a China-based developer of cloud-based collaboration and project management technology, has raised $5m in a series A round led by publishing and data company IDG, Tech in Asia reported on Thursday. The round, which also featured venture capital firm Vangoo Capital, will support product development and an expansion from China and Japan to the rest of Southeast Asia.

Ayoxxa Biosystems, the Germany-based developer of a platform for protein analysis, secured €2.3m ($2.9m) on Tuesday to expand its series B round to $14.1m. The new financing, which took Ayoxxa’s funding since launch to $17.5m, came from BioMedPartners and Grazia Equity, while investors already involved in the round include corporate-backed fund High-Tech Gruenderfonds, NRW Bank, Wellington Partners Venture Capital, B-to-V Partners, Creathor Venture and HR Ventures.

Grooves, the Japan-based creator of engineer recruitment platform Forkwell, has raised ¥220m ($1.9m) in series A funding from Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital, which acts as Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance’s corporate venturing fund, Japan Finance Corporation and Nippon Venture Capital, The Bridge reported on Monday. The round followed a $600,000 investment by Nippon Venture Capital in 2012 and an undisclosed sum of seed funding from internet company CyberAgent in 2011.

France-based fraud detection software developer Shift Technology received €1.4m ($1.7m) in series A funding on Wednesday from Iris Capital, the VC fund backed by mobile network Orange and public relations group Publicis, and private equity boutique investor Elaia Partners. Founded in 2013, Shift’s software uses big data to look for signs of financial fraud.

Fire protection and security company Tyco invested an undisclosed amount in US-based residential security and home control software producer Qolsys on Wednesday. Qolsys will use the funding to further develop its residential security and internet of things platform, while its products will be immediately made available to Tyco customers.

Bowery, a US-based startup working on virtualisation software for programmers, has emerged from stealth with $1.5m in convertible debt funding from investors including Bloomberg Beta, media company Bloomberg’s seed fund, and Google Ventures, the corporate venturing fund of internet company Google, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The round also included Betaworks, Boldstart Ventures, Deep Fork Capital, Homebrew, Magnet Agency, RRE, SV Angel, Rough Draft Ventures and First Round Capital.

Samsung Venture Investment, a subsidiary of electronics producer Samsung, invested an undisclosed amount in US-based plastics recycling technology developer Connora Technologies on Wednesday. The capital will support commercialisation of Recyclamine, an efficient system for recycling composite materials used in industrial manufacturing, such as thermoset plastics.

Bloomberg Beta, the corporate venturing fund owned by media company Bloomberg, and VC firm FirstMark Capital provided $1m of seed funding on Tuesday for Bonusly, the US-based builder of an employee reward platform. Bonusly, which has bootstrapped since it was founded in 2012, will spend the cash on growing its engineering, sales and marketing staff while continuing to develop its platform.

Plumzi, the US-based developer of a platform for animation studios to transfer their work to mobile device-friendly formats, has raised an undisclosed sum thought to be in the six-figure dollar range, Tech in Asia reported on Friday. The funding came from Fuji Startup Ventures, the corporate venturing subsidiary of Japan-based media company Fuji TV, entertainment company Walt Disney, Turner New Media Investments, a subsidiary of Turner Broadcasting, and VC firm Quest Venture Partners.

Marvel, the UK-based creator of a design tool that can help turn rough ideas into apps, has raised £525,000 ($820,000) from mobile app studio UsTwo, VC fund Connect Ventures and several angel investors, TechCrunch reported on Tuesday. The startup previously raised £60,000 from incubator Haatch in November 2013.

Codetrails, a Germany-based developer using big data to read programming code more easily, secured an undisclosed sum from High-Tech Gruenderfonds on Tuesday. The startup uses technology spun-off of research conducted at university TU Darmstadt.

High-Tech Gruenderfonds also provided an undisclosed amount of seed funding on Tuesday for All3DP, the Germany-based operator of an online news source for 3D printing. In addition to its media activities, All3DP also provides an online marketplace for 3D printable objects.

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