Corporate-backed startup funding rounds more than tripled year-on-year in Japan — CVC rounds have been steadily increasing in the country for the past year.
There was a sharp rise in CVC-backed funding rounds in Japan and India, defying what is usually the slow summer month of August.
Corporate-backed deals were up by 239% year on year in Japan, and by 117% in India, according to GCV data. The only other major geography to see a positive year-on-year difference was the UK, with a 25% increase.
The rise in Japanese deals in more than just a blip. The number of corporate-backed rounds in Japan has been growing steadily since September last year.
The largest corporate-backed funding round coming out of Japan in August was raised by artist management and marketing agency Thinkr. The company raised a $33.3 series A round, backed by a host of investors, including transport company Hankyu Hanshin Holdings, software companies Money Forward and Thirdwave, game developers Cygames and Yostar, telecoms provider KDDI and Chishima Real Estate.
Elsewhere, Japan-based rocket launcher developer Intestellar Technologies raised 3.1bn yen ($21.4m) of series E funding, backed by mobile phone operator NTT Docomo, among others, while Comic Smart, a Japan-based online manga comic publisher, raised $19.3 in series A funding, backed by insurance company Dai-ichi Life.
Indian CVC-backed funding rounds, on the other hand, have been much more variable, fluctuating between 11 and 20 per month since August 2023.
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India-based wealth and asset management company Neo raised around $48m for a series B round, backed by Microsoft’s CVC unit M12, among others. Another significant round was the $20m raised for Even Healthcare, an India-based subscription healthcare plan provider. The series B round was backed by financial services company Zerodha’s fintech and health-focused CVC unit Rainmatter.
In another deal accentuating the adoption of electric vehicles, India-based Fresh Bus, which operates a fleet of all electric buses, raised $10.5m in a series A round that was backed by Shell.
Overall there were 264 corporate-backed funding rounds globally in August, a 3% increase against last year’s number of 256. August is typically one of the quietest of the year for startup fundraising, however.
Transport deals speed up
In terms of sectors, transport was the standout for deals in August, with the number of corporate-backed transactions up 75% compared to last year. This was the most significant year-on-year change within the sectors.
The electrification of the mobility sector is driving this boost. In addition to India’s Fresh Bus deal, there several fundraisings by startups working on the electrification of transport.
High power electric motor manufacturer H3X raised $20m in series A funding, backed by corporates Hanwha, the South Korean conglomerate, and aerospace and defence company Lockheed Martin, among others. The US-based company Intramotev, which builds battery-electric railer car retrofits, closed an oversubscribed series A, raising $14.4m. The round was backed by private freight rail platform Cathcart Rail, among others.
Poland-based company MMI raised $8.2m from strategic investor Vinci – an energy and construction company. MMI is developing a range of electric minibuses.
Big deals
Despite the August slowdown, some large corporate-backed funding rounds were raised. The largest, by some distance, was digital wallet application developer Mynt, which secured around $800m from two major strategic investors – financial group MUFG and Philippines-based conglomerate Ayala Corporation.
The second biggest deal of the month was US-based company Groq, which develops fast AI inference technology. Groq raised $640m in a series D round backed by Cisci, Samsung and KDDI. And finally, the third largest was from data engine developer Cribl, which raised a $319m series E round. The round was backed by two separate Alphabet funds: Capital G and Google Ventures.
Want to see all the deals from August? The GCV monthly deals tables give you an overview of all the corporate-backed startup funding rounds
