Geniee, the Japan-based adtech developer backed by internet company Yahoo Japan, has raised an undisclosed amount of series D funding from venture capital firm Fenox Venture Capital, Tech in Asia reported on Tuesday. YJ Capital, Yahoo Japan’s investment arm, provided an undisclosed amount of funding for Geniee in 2013, after the company has raised $700,000 from Global Brain and $1m from digital media company Gree, and Geniee has since received undisclosed sums from telecoms firm SoftBank, marketing company Opt, and outsourcing specialist Transcosmos.
Dentsu Ventures Global Fund, a corporate venturing fund administered by digital marketing firm Dentsu, has invested an undisclosed amount in Cue, a US-based startup that tracks health data at the molecular level. Cue previously raised $7.5m in a November 2014 series A round led by SherpaVentures that also included Immortalana, the latter having earlier backed Cue with angel funding.
Networking technology provider Cisco has invested $2.5m in UK-based startup accelerator Startupbootcamp in a deal it said will enable it to connect with innovative technology developers and gain insight into market transitions. Cisco pledged in July this year to commit $150m to the UK’s startups space as part of a $1bn investment drive in the country.
E-commerce and online classifieds group Info Edge has invested Rs 150m ($2.3m) in Canvera Digital Technologies, the India-based operator of online photography services marketplace Canvera.com, at an $11.5m pre-money valuation, according to the Economic Times. Info Edge now holds a 49% stake in Canvera, having invested more than $13.5m in total since 2012, while its other investors include Footprint Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Mumbai Angels.
Liquid, the Japan-based developer of a biometric payment system called Liquid Pay that uses fingerprint authentication, has secured an undisclosed amount of funding from trading group Itochu, digital marketing firm Dentsu, payment services firm Credit Saison and university venturing unit The University of Tokyo Edge Capital. A graduate of an incubator run by mobile network Docomo’s Docomo Ventures subsidiary, Liquid has received almost $770,000 in grants from the Japanese government, and telecoms firm NTT and internet company Digital Garage are also shareholders.
Phytech, the Israel-based developer of a big data-equipped recommendation platform to measure crop health, closed a funding round on Monday backed by Syngenta Ventures and Mitsui & Co Europe, subsidiaries of agribusiness Syngenta and diversified conglomerate Mitsui respectively. Asset manager Yellow Brick Capital Advisers had invested $3m in Phytech across two rounds prior to the latest funding, according to deals database CrunchBase.
IT services provider Gruppo Corvallis has paid €1.3m ($1.4m) for a 43% stake in Italy-based corporate value and risk evaluation company ModeFinance, investing through Corvallis BI, its business information unit. The funding will support international growth.
Italy-based cloud monetisation technology company Cloudesire has received €600,000 ($650,000) from TIM Ventures, telecoms firm Telecom Italia’s corporate venturing unit. The funding will support the launch of Cloudesire’s global enterprise app store, and to expand in Europe.
Japan-based expense balancing app producer Crowd Cast has received an undisclosed amount of series B funding sized in the tens of millions of yen (¥10m = $83,000) from Saison Ventures, Credit Saison’s strategic investment arm, and IMJ Investment Partners, The Bridge reported on Monday. Accounting software provider Yayoi invested $210,000 in Crowd Cast in 2013 before IMJ added an undisclosed sum in a September 2014 series A round.