Big deal: Nightstar to light up stock market

The University of Oxford spinout has filed for an $86.25m initial public offering in the US just three years after being founded.

OSI secures Legal & General backing

Oxford Sciences Innovation has received an investment of undisclosed size from Legal & General.

IP Group reaches 90% Touchstone approval

The commercialisation firm has secured the approval of more than 90% of shareholders required to force a hostile takeover of Touchstone Innovations.

CureFit exercises with $25m

CureFit Healthcare has raised funding from investors including the UC-RNT fund, a venture capital vehicle established by University of California with Ratan Tata.

Imperial gives founders a choice

Imperial College London and Imperial Innovations have introduced Founders Choice, a program that offers academics the option to retain 95% of equity.

Deal net: 28 August – 1 September 2017

The Global University Venturing deal net rounds up all the latest smaller deals and tracks emerging companies accessing university funds.

Corporate venturing deal net: 31 August – 1 September 2017

Each Friday the Global Corporate Venturing Deal Net rounds up the week’s smaller deals and tracks the emerging companies accessing corporate funds.

Fundraising

Vertex pushes beyond $150m

Vertex Ventures has exceeded the $150m target for its latest fund, securing external investment for the first time from Kasikornbank.

Oma Emirates finances corporate venturing

The payments and fintech group has allocated a total of $23m to investments in fintech startups and verticals in India.

People

Philip Fischer promoted at SevenVentures

The promotion came after Kasper Sage, a senior investment manager at ProSiebenSat.1 Media, left to become a principal at automotive manufacturer BMW’s corporate venturing unit, BMW i Ventures.

Mikihiro Yasuda leaves DeNA

He had been in charge of DeNA’s investment in US market since April 2014 after a year in San Francisco, California, as a senior director.

Sherry House drives over to Waymo

She is now director and head of corporate finance at Waymo covering corporate development.

Matt Stanley builds career at Ikea

Ikea already had its €60m ($71m) GreenTech corporate venture capital company making equity investments in green technology companies led by Christian Ehrenborg.

Brian Walsh snaps from Konica to McKinsey

As a general manager for corporate venture capital services, Walsh said: “At McKinsey, I am helping to drive a new service line around Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) best practices.”

Exits

Uber to gear up for IPO within 36 months

Dara Khosrowshahi, new chief executive at corporate-backed Uber, revealed his ambition to take the company public within the next 18 to 36 months.

Trumpf acquires C-Labs

Trumpf, which had supported a $2.7m series A round two years ago, has acquired C-Labs for a reported $10m.

Best to conquer $1bn IPO

Alibaba-backed Best hopes to raise $1bn in a flotation on the New York Stock Exchange.

Berry completes $653m backdoor listing

Legend Capital has celebrated an exit as Berry Genomics completed a reverse merger with Chengdu Tianxing Instrument and Meter in a deal worth $653m.

GoGoVan reaches for 58 Suyun

The two logistics companies have agreed to a merger in a deal that will create Hong Kong’s first unicorn.

CSL accesses Calimmune for $91m

CSL Behring has agreed to acquire Calimmune, a developer of gene therapy treatments that is backed by an unnamed pharmaceutical firm.

Western Digital gets Upthere

Western Digital has acquired its corporate venturing arm’s portfolio company Upthere, also providing exits to GV and NTT Docomo.

Ele.me gobbles down Waimai

Baidu has sold its food delivery service Waimai to food delivery company Ele.me for a reported $800m, retaining a small stake in the venture.

Synlogic processes Mirna merger

Synlogic has completed its reverse merger with Nasdaq-listed Mirna, which is backed by Pfizer and Baxter, following the approval of Mirna’s shareholders.

IT

Qadium gathers $40m series B

O’Reilly Media-backed Qadium has obtained $40m in funding from a consortium led by Institutional Venture Partners.

Gigster stages $20m series B

Bloomberg-backed Gigster has added $20m to its coffers with a series B round led by Redpoint Ventures.

Appier harnesses $33m series C

SoftBank, Line, Naver and AMTD are among the investors in a $33m series C for Appier, which closed its $42.5m series B round in December 2016.

Descartes thinks about $30m series B

The satellite imagery analytics company has raised money from a consortium that included existing client Cargill.

Qiniuyun computes $152m investment

Alibaba has contributed to a $152m funding round for cloud computing company Qiniuyun with a view of strengthening its own cloud offering.

Health

Armo Biosciences takes $67m in series C1

GV and Celgene have returned for a $67m series C1 round in Armo Biosciences, which will use the cash to launch phase 2/3 clinical trials of its immunotherapy candidate.

BrainScope conceives $16m investment

General Electric and National Football League previously provided funding through the GE NFL Head Health Challenge.

GNS generates $6m in funding

Amgen Ventures and Alexandria Real Estate Equities have invested $6m in GNS Healthcare, which already counts Celgene, Cambia Health and Mitsui as investors.

Freenome takes series A to $72m

GV-backed Freenome has raised $7m in a series A extension led by Section 32, the venture capital firm launched by former GV chief executive Bill Maris.

CF PharmTech engineers $65m series D

Shuanglu Pharma-backed CF PharmTech has raised $65m in a series D round led by fund managed by China state-owned State Development & Investment Corporation.

Akeso follows $45m series B regimen

Qianhai Xino-backed Akeso Biopharma will use the series B capital to build a drug manufacturing facility in China.

SetPoint matches $30m to series D

Boston Scientific, Medtronic and GlaxoSmithKline returned to support a $30m series D round for biomedical technology company SetPoint Medical.

Media

VideoAmp fleshes out $21.4m series B

RTL, which previously took part in a $15m series A has returned for the series B round and was joined by fellow corporate Mediaocean.

HowStuffWorks figures out $15m series A

HowStuffWorks has been spun out from System1, raising $15m in a series A round led by Raine Group.

Amplero markets $17.5m series B

The funding round follows a Salesforce-backed $8m series A in July 2016.

DoubleVerify identifies majority owner

Providence Equity Partners has made a majority investment in DoubleVerify, which last raised $33m in 2011 and whose shareholders included Comcast affiliate Genacast.

Consumer

Citybox stocks $15m series A

Ant Financial-backed Citybox has received series A capital from a host of venture capital firms to fund deployment of 5,000 retail terminals by mid-2018.

Investors have Good Feeling about series B

Century Golden Resources is among the backers of a $15.2m funding round for fitness club operator Good Feeling.

Ollie chases $12.6m series A

WME Ventures has returned for a $12.6m series A round in Ollie, a pet food delivery service that previously closed a $4.4m seed round reportedly also involving the talent agency.

Bertelsmann extends Treebo stay

Bertelsmann Asia Investments has returned to back a $34m series C round for Treebo Hotels, having previously led a $16.6m series B just over a year ago.

Financial

Investors line up for Abcfintech deal

Susquehanna International Group is among a consortium of backers that have supplied a total of $30m in angel and series A capital for Abcfintech.

Kaistart heads for $29m series C

Beijing Kunlun Tech-backed Kaistart has added $29m to its coffers in a round led by Yunfeng Capital.

Tencent helps take care of Shuidi series A

Healthcare crowdfunding platform Shuidi has collected $24.3m in a series A round co-led by Tencent and BlueRun Ventures.

Fangsiling secures $45m series E instalment

Fangsiling, backed by Baidu, Fengjr and 5i5j.com, operates a platform that enables tenants to pay deposits in instalments and offers flexibility for collecting monthly rent.

Transport

Fengxiansheng picks up series C

Jolly Information Technology has contributed to a series C round worth tens of millions of dollars for logistics services provider Fengxiansheng.

Grab clutches more series G cash

The round, which already stood at $2bn thanks to commitments from SoftBank and Didi Chuxing, has inched further towards its $2.5bn target with a cash infusion from Toyota.

Services

Alice makes room for series B

Expedia has put $26m into hotel management platform Alice, acquiring a majority stake in the process.