Industrial holding company HC2 Holdings provided $5m in series A-1 funding for US-based video data technology start-up NerVve Technologies on Monday. Nervve, which has developed a system it claims can read visual pixels as if they were words, previously received funding from In-Q-Tel, the US intelligence community’s venture capital fund.
US-based executive education provider ExecOnline secured $5m on Thursday in series A funding from backers including Kaplan Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of education services provider Kaplan, Osage Venture Partners, New Atlantic Ventures and Militello Capital. The company, which has now raised approximately $7.6m in total according to SEC filings, will now expand its sales and marketing as it seeks to scale its service.
Sequenta, the US-based developer of treatments for blood cancers based on immune cell receptor genes, raised an undisclosed amount of funding on Monday from investors including pharmaceutical company Celgene. The company had raised approximately $43.5m from backers including Index Ventures, Mohr Davidow Ventures and Foresite Capital prior to the latest round.
Japan-based messaging app developer Quan closed a multi-million dollar series A round on Monday that received funding from corporate venturing unit Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital, business management firm Dentsu Digital Holdings, financial services firm Senshu Ikeda, Daiwa Corporate Investment, East Ventures and IMJ Investment Partners. East Ventures and e-commerce company Netprice.com provided an undisclosed amount of seed funding for Quan in 2012.
Cisco Investments, networking technology developer Cisco’s corporate venturing unit, invested $3m in Moogsoft, a US-based developer of ‘manager-of-manager’ software, in conjunction with an additional, undisclosed public company on Tuesday. The money took Moogsoft’s series B funding to $14.3m and its overall funding to $21.3m, the company having raised $11.3m from investors including Wing Venture Capital and Redpoint Ventures in July.
India-based e-commerce enablement platform Kartrocket secured $2m on Wednesday in a series A round led by Berteslmann-backed venture capital firm Nirvana Venture Advisors that also included internet company NetPrice and VC firm 500 Startups. 500 Startups, 5ideas and angel investor Jatin Aneja provided an undisclosed amount of seed funding for Kartrocket in July 2013.
US-based content marketing platform Vestorly announced over $2m in seed on Thursday from corporate-backed VC firm Formation 8, AlphaPrime Ventures and KasparGlobal Ventures. The cash was raised in early 2014 and is being used to grow the start-up’s engineering team and enterprise capabilities.
Internet company Info Edge has invested Rs 100m ($1.6m) in India-based photography services provider Canvera Digital Technologies, taking its total funding of the company to $11m and its stake to 36%, according to a stock market filing on Tuesday. It also provided approximately $650,000 for India-based online goods retailer Happily Unmarried Marketing.
DisplayNote Technologies, a UK-based developer of communication and presentation apps, has raised £1m ($1.6m) in early-stage funding from Bank of Ireland’s Kernel Capital Growth Fund, The Irish Times reported on Monday. The capital will allow DisplayNote to accelerate the release of its new products, which is planned to take place at the Dublin Web Summit next month.
US-based web development technology developer Bowery announced $1.5m in seed funding on Tuesday as it released the third iteration of its app. The cash came from investors including internet company Google’s corporate venturing unit, Google Ventures, Bloomberg Beta, which fulfils the same purpose for media company Bloomberg, SV Angel, RRE, Homebrew, Betaworks, Boldstart Ventures, Magnet Agency, Deep Fork Capital, Rough Draft Ventures and the First Round Capital-run Dorm Room Fund.
Doz, a online marketing start-up owned by US-based search engine optimisation technology company Capseo, has raised $1.5m from Bpifrance, the investment subsidiary of French postal service La Poste, as well as 500 Startups, Kima Ventures and Nexus Venture Partners, Dow Jones reported on Tuesday. The cash will go to sales and marketing, and research and development.
Softbank Ventures Korea, a regional corporate venturing subsidiary of telecommunications firm SoftBank, has invested an undisclosed amount in Korea-based restaurant discovery app MangoPlate, BeSuccess reported on Thursday. In addition to filling a space in the regional market, MangoPlate is employing technology to simplify the review process while also making the data far more searchable.
Spain-based online video streaming platform Wouzee received €1m ($1.3m) in its first external funding round on Wednesday, which was backed by publishing company Unidad Editorial and angel investor José María Salido. It will use the money to enter the livestreaming market, grow partnerships and expand geographically.
China-based online clothing retailer Grana has raised a $1m seed round from luxury goods distributor Bluebell Group and angel investor syndicate Sazerac Group, Tech in Asia reported on Tuesday. Grana, which intends to use its Hong Kong location to help it sell goods cheaper, will spend the cash in setting up pop-up stores in Australia and Hong Kong while aiming to ramp up its word-of-mouth marketing.
StandFirm, the Japan-based developer of a cloud-based invoicing system, has secured ¥70m ($650,000) from SMBC Venture Capital, which is the venture capital branch of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and Incubate Fund, The Bridge reported on Thursday. Incubate Fund invested $280,000 in the start-up in September 2013.
Internet holding company Movile has invested $2m in Peru-based mobile ticketing service CinePapaya, TechCrunch reported on Monday. A graduate of Wayra, the accelerator run by telecommunications firm Telefonica, Movile raised $500,000 from Wayra and 500 Startups at a $2.5m valuation in May 2013, and will invest the new funds in hiring additional staff and developing its product as it seeks to expand further across Latin America.
IDG Capital Partners, the China-based corporate venturing subsidiary of data and publishing group IDG, invested $500,000 in US-based flash-sales app developer Peach on Thursday. The app has been used by several luxury brands for online sales, and its selling point is that the winning bidder only pays the amount bid by the second highest bidder.