AAA Weekly corporate venturing deal net: 9-13 May 2016

Weekly corporate venturing deal net: 9-13 May 2016

McKesson Ventures and Salesforce Ventures, the respective corporate venturing vehicles for pharmaceutical product supplier McKesson Corporation and enterprise software provider Salesforce.com, contributed an undisclosed amount on Tuesday to a series C round being raised by US-based healthcare management software developer Evariant. The round also includes existing backers Health Enterprise Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Goldman Sachs.

Sorabito, the Japan-based operator of construction equipment marketplace Allstocker, has received ¥500m ($4.6m) from Gree Ventures, Opt Ventures, SMBC Venture Capital and GMO Venture Partners – respective subsidiaries of digital media provider Gree, digital marketing firm Opt, financial services firm Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and internet group GMO – as well as leasing company JA Mitsui Leasing, and angel investors Fumiaki Koizumi and Hidetoshi Takano, The Bridge reported on Monday. Sorabito raised $840,000 in a GMO-backed round in October 2015.

US-based local urban media startup Ripple.co secured $4m in series A funding on Tuesday from e-commerce group Rakuten, Greylock Partners, Graph Ventures, Social Capital, Charles River Ventures, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Innovation Endeavors, Pejman Mar Ventures, Matter Ventures, 500 Startups and assorted angel investors. Ripple, which had operated in beta in San Francisco and Oakland since March 2016, has now also launched officially, adding news feeds in New York, London, Cairo and Bangkok.

Broadcaster TBS Television invested an undisclosed sum in Japan-based online fashion video platform C Channel last month, The Bridge reported on Monday. The funding, sized in the “multi-million dollar” range, follows a $4.2m seed round in April 2015 featuring corporates Rakuten, Nexyz, Gree, GMO, I-Style, Asobi System, and MAK Corporation, as well as corporate-backed venture capital fund B Dash Ventures.

Sure, the US-based creator of an on-demand online insurance platform powered by artificial intelligence, revealed yesterday it has raised $2.6m in seed capital from Fosun Kinzon Capital, which forms part of conglomerate Fosun Group, as well as FF Venture Capital and Montage Ventures. The funding was disclosed as Sure formally launched its app.

US-based robot fighting contest organiser MegaBots has received $2.4m in seed funding from investors including design software provider Autodesk, Azure Capital Partners, AME Cloud Ventures, Maveron and Ray Rothrock, formerly the chairman of the National Venture Capital Association, TechCrunch reported on Tuesday. MegaBots plans to use the seed capital to formally institute and run an international version of its league.

Fluent, the US-based developer of a system to power applications for global trade and the financial supply chain, has secured $1.65m in a seed round led by FF Venture Capital that included Fenbushi Capital, a subsidiary of auto parts group Wanxiang, as well as Digital Currency Group, Crosscut Ventures, Draper Associates, Lindbergh Tech Fund, and St. Louis Arch Angels. It also revealed $850,000 in earlier funding from media group Thomson Reuters, UMB Bank, Draper Associates, 500 Startups and SixThirty that was raised in November 2015.

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