BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners (BCBSVP), the corporate venturing arm of health insurance provider Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, has taken part in a $4m series A1 round for Solera Health, the US-based creator of a personalised preventive health network. Sandbox Industries and SJF Ventures also invested in the round, which follows $3m of series A capital from BCBSVP and Sandbox Industries in November 2015.
Bonfyre, the US-based creator of a social communication platform for businesses, completed a $4m funding round led by private equity firm Arsenal Capital Management on Tuesday, adding to a $2.45m round, also led by Arsenal, in January this year. The company has now raised about $9m overall, including $1.7m in a 2013 round backed by marketing firm MKTG.
Semiconductor technology provider Microsemi Corporation invested an undisclosed sum in US-based network security technology producer Veracity Security Intelligence on Wednesday as part of a collaboration agreement. The company, founded in 2014, had raised $3m in equity funding, according to a regulatory filing last month.
Online education company Hujiang provided $3m of series A funding yesterday for Italki, the China-based operator of an online marketplace for language learning teachers. Italki will use the funding to expand its service, which it claims includes 3,000 active one-to-one language teachers and is responsible for thousands of online lessons each day.
US-based back office automation technology startup AppZen completed a $2.9m seed round on Wednesday featuring payment services provider MasterCard and media company Bloomberg, which invested through its Bloomberg Beta subsidiary. VC firm Resolute Ventures led the round, which also included Silicon Valley Bank and FundersClub. AppZen graduated from 500 Startups’ accelerator program in spring 2015.
Insurance firm Allianz agreed on Monday to invest an undisclosed amount in Germany-based online insurance selling platform Simplesurance as part of a cooperation agreement that will involve it distributing Allianz policies through its service. Simplesurance had previously raised $11.5m including $8m in a March 2015 series B round backed by Rheingau Founders, Route 66 Ventures and an undisclosed US-headquartered insurance firm.
IT company Lanit has paid $2.5m for a 28.6% stake in Russia-based contactless payment technology developer CardsMobile, Vedomosti has reported. Lanit has also acquired the option to increase its investment in CardsMobile, which has developed both a near field communication payment platform and a mobile wallet app.
Layer, a US-based internet communications technology provider that counts media group Bloomberg as an investor, received an undisclosed amount of funding from technology and software engineering investment partnership Social Discovery Ventures on Monday. The company had raised $22m altogether from Bloomberg Beta, Homebrew, AME Cloud Ventures, CrunchFund and Fuel Capital, as of May 2014.
Heymarket, the US-headquartered developer of a text message-based marketing platform, has raised seed funding reported by TechCrunch to be $2m in size from IDG Ventures, a venture capital affiliate of IT media company International Data Group, as well as Harrison Metal and Precursor Ventures. The startup disclosed the funding on the same day as it launched its product on the iOS operating system.
US-based immersive entertainment startup CryWorks came out of stealth on Tuesday with an undisclosed amount of seed funding from backers including digital media company 451 Media Group, 500 Mobile Collective and WI Harper Group. Founded in 2015, the startup has already worked on virtual reality projects for Samsung, the Wall Street Journal and eSports ESL One.
UK-based adaptive learning product supplier CogBooks has received £1.25m ($1.8m) in funding from publisher DC Thomson, Nesta Impact Investments and Scottish Investment Bank, a subsidiary of Scottish Enterprise. The funding comes after CogBooks secured $2.8m from the same three investors in late 2014, with DC Thompson investing through its DC Thomson Ventures unit.
Beverage producer Coca Cola’s Venturing & Emerging Brands unit provided an undisclosed amount of funding for US-headquartered, plant-based beverage developer Aloe Gloe on Wednesday. Aloe Gloe is part of LA Libations, the beverage incubator co-founded by three former merchandisers for Coca-Cola Enterprises.
Bvddy, the US-based creator of a social networking platform for amateur sportspeople, completed a $1.5m pre-series A round featuring market intelligence provider IDC Group on Wednesday. Angel investor Bobby Aitkenhead and undisclosed “high-profile” Latin American investors also took part in the round, which come after $715,000 in seed and angel financing from undisclosed backers.
Recruit Strategic Partners, a corporate venturing subsidiary of human resources firm Recruit, invested $1.5m in US-based local business network operator Alignable yesterday. The round took Alignable’s total funding to $13.5m, including $8m from a September 2015 round led by Mayfield Fund that included Saturn Partners, NextView Ventures and Lead Edge Capital.
Maipple, a Japan-headquartered startup that operates a Taiwan-based flea marketing app, has received an undisclosed sum from GX Incubate, which invests as a subsidiary of internet company Gaiax, The Bridge has reported. Three angel investors also participated in the round, which will fund marketing, product development and increased expansion in Southeast Asia.
Y Soft Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of Czech Republic-based office services provider Y Soft, has invested $1.3m in network traffic analysis and forensics technology startup GreyCortex. The deal was announced yesterday, the same day as Y Soft’s $1m investment in another domestic company, projection mapping technology startup Lumitrix.
Research firm Advanced Telecommunication Research Institute International (ATR) has invested approximately $960,000 in Japan-based smart robotics developer Yukai Engineering through the investment unit it formed with VC firm Nippon Venture Capital, Tech in Asia reported on Monday. Yukai is building robots for the home consumer market, and its family communication robot, Bocco, will make use of ATR’s paralanguage processing technology.
Online restaurant review platform Foody Corporation has supplied an undisclosed amount of funding for Vietnam-based services discount provider Jamja, DealStreetAsia reported yesterday. The capital was provided as part of a strategic alliance that will enable some of the companies’ services being integrated.