US-based physical storage service Boxbee raised $5m on Tuesday in a series A round led by venture capital firm Metamorphic Ventures that also featured an undisclosed home improvement company, as well as Floodgate, Northgate and unnamed previous investors. Boxbee previously secured $2.3m in April from Google Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of internet company Google, Floodgate, 500 Startups, TechStars and Ludlow Ventures.
Astellas Venture Management, the corporate venturing arm of pharmaceutical firm Astellas, invested an undisclosed amount in UK-based antibody-focused therapeutics developer Crescendo Biologics on Tuesday. Crescendo had previously raised £24m ($37.8m), including £19.5m from an April 2014 series A round backed by Astellas, EMBL Ventures, Imperial Innovations and Sofinnova Partners.
US-based digital payment startup Prairie Cloudware closed a $3.2m capital raise on Wednesday from student loans and services provider Nelnet, Croghan Investments, Tetrad Development Corporation, Treetop Ventures and Invest Nebraska Corporation. Praire has now raised $5.3m in total, including $1.65m from a December 2013 round backed by Nelnet, Croghan, Tetrad and Treetop.
Digit, a US-based startup that analyses data from users’ accounts while helping them save money, closed a $2.5m seed round on Tuesday led by Baseline Ventures that also featured Google Ventures, Freestyle Capital, Upside Partnership, Operative Capital, and several angel investors. The company claims to have already saved users over $600,000 while in closed beta.
Taxify, the Estonia-based developer of a an Uber-like app for traditional taxi firms, has raised €1.4m ($1.7m) from investors including advertising network Adcash, Rubylight and TMT Investments, TechCrunch reported on Thursday. The funding follows a $100,000 angel round in April this year, and will support an expansion from Taxify’s current markets in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Finland to four more countries, one of which is likely to be the Netherlands.
Grow, a US-based provider of online dashboards for businesses, has raised $1.5m from backers including IT training provider Pluralsight, seed investor Kickstart Seed Fund and VC firm Pelion Ventures. The startup disclosed the funding as it emerged from beta.
One97 Mobility Fund, the corporate venturing unit of mobile commerce platform One97, and angel investor Anupam Mittal have invested an undisclosed sum in India-based e-commerce company Zepo, Hindu Business Line reported on Tuesday. Zepo plans to increase its sales staff over the next year from 20 situated across three cities to about 100 spread across four.
Merchbar, the US-based operator of an online shop for music merchandise, has secured $1m in seed funding from entertainment company Universal Music Group, 500 Startups, Maiden Lane, Structure Capital and a host of angel investors. The funding was revealed at the same time as Merchbar launched its new site and began supporting Apple Pay, claiming to be the first website to do so.
US-based mobile on-demand therapist service Talkspace has raised $1m from Metamorphic Ventures, enabling it to close its seed round at $3.5m, TechCrunch reported on Tuesday. Talkspace secured the other $2.5m from telecommunications firm SoftBank and VC firm Spark Capital in May.
Online recipe service Cookpad has paid an undisclosed amount in seed funding likely to be in the six-figure dollar range for a 16% stake in Japan-based digital product warrant provider Warrantee, according to Tech in Asia. Warrantee ‘s service registers personal data, which can also be supplied to marketing companies, enabling users to keep all their warranties in one place.
Pedius, an Italy-based startup developing an app that enables the deaf to make phonecalls, raised €410,000 ($500,000) on Thursday from TIM Ventures, the seed capital fund owned by telecommunications company Telecom Italia, Sistema Investimenti and Embed Capital. Telecom Italia previously supplied €25,000 to Pedius in July 2013 through its Working Capital accelerator.
InVent, the corporate venturing unit of telecommunications firm Intouch Holdings, has invested $500,000 in Thailand-based game developer Infinity Levels Studio, E27 reported on Tuesday. InTouch, which had previously raised an undisclosed amount of seed funding from online bookseller Ookbee and dating service Singles Solution, will spend the cash on improving its animal racing game Ranch Run and launching two new games next year.
Chile-based messaging app Lookout has secured $100,000 in seed funding from Switzerland-based metal trader MKS and bullion provider Pamp, itself a subsidiary of MKS, NextBigWhat reported on Tuesday. Lookup had previously raised approximately $165,000 from Kris Gopalakrishnan, a co-founder of IT services provider Infosys.